


Normal

by 100yardstare



Category: Madagascar (Movies), Penguins of Madagascar
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Dreamworks, F/M, Humor, Interspecies Relationship(s), Mild Language, POV First Person, Sequel, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:21:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 119,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23220862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/100yardstare/pseuds/100yardstare
Summary: Adjusting into becoming a productive member of society was hard enough before a horde of octopuses broke my window, then came back to kidnap me. Now I have to play assistant for their leader, Dave, who disguises himself as Dr. Octavius Brine to all the other humans of the world that don't know any better. I'm just taking this one day at a time, or else I'll lose my sanity.✧This is a reposing from my FanFiction.net account from 2015. This is 100% a deadass self-insert.
Relationships: Dave | Dr. Octavius Brine/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 16





	1. The Window Incident

**Author's Note:**

> Normal was originally written and published on my FanFiction.net account in April 2015. It has been slightly revised but the content and writing style has been preserved. 
> 
> Yo! Thanks for clicking, reader. I hope you enjoy the mess you're about to read. Any comments, suggestions...anything in general is always welcome!

"I'm not lying to you!" I yelled through the telephone with such anguish and sincerity that any normal person hearing this would instantly know I was serious. My cousin, Leah, scoffed at me once more in response, then began to chuckle. There was literally no convincing her at this point.

"Don't you think it's just a _little_ strange what you're telling me?" Leah managed to speak, her tone soft in comparison to her constant erupting chuckles. "Start from the beginning and tell me what happened."

I took in a gigantic sigh, making sure to emphasize how done I was with her teasing me. I was beginning to feel like a crazy person on the streets that shouted they saw Bigfoot or something in their front yard.

"It was yesterday when I was boarding the plane home," I started, clearing my voice to attempt to be as mature about this as I possibly could. "Some little girl left a snow globe on a sink in one of the bathrooms at the airport in New York. I saw it, obviously, since I was the only one in the bathroom after that, and there was a tiny ass octopus in it! Like, who the hell puts live creatures in things like that? Do people know that'll kill them?!"

I was about to rage quit the phone onto the floor like a football before I continued. "I was scared for the little guy; he looked like he was about to die, so I put him in my bag and snuck him on board. Luckily, I already passed security, or else they would have made me throw it away. Something about no liquid containers or some bullshit."

"Okay. Go on, tell me about what happened last night." Leah tried to chuckle again, but held herself back. I wanted to punch her face so hard right then, but because she wasn't physically there making fun of me, that was impossible.

"Okay, so by the time I get home I tried to find a way to get him out of the snow globe. There was literally nothing I could do to open it without breaking it, and I didn't want to risk crushing him, so I just sat there crying like a dumbass for five minutes before I prayed over him and went to sleep. Or at least tried. It wasn't until almost four in the morning when I heard the break-in."

There was silence on the other end of the line; genuine concern seemed to filter through the connection. "Okay…" was all that Leah managed to let out.

"So I got up, freaking the hell out that I was being robbed, and when I walked into the kitchen where I left the snow globe, my window was broken and the thing was gone! And that's when I saw three octopuses run through the backyard and jump the fence. One actually stopped and looked at me, dead in the eye, before it leapt after the others!"

"Kailey, maybe you dreamt this up," Leah responded, continually in her tone of amused disbelief. "I know all about you and all the kinds of crazy dreams you have. Maybe you should listen to your mom and go to a sleep clinic to get this figured out."

"I wasn't sleeping!" I yelled. "I was wide awake! I didn't dream this up!"

"Geez, calm down!” Leah said. “I'm just… well, concerned for your wellbeing. Ever since you've been out of the house you haven't been doing well. Maybe you just miss home, and that's fine, nobody is expected to transition well into adult life. I mean, I had to live alone by the time I finished high school, so I wouldn't know, but…"

She was doing it again, her and her rants about how she was successfully able to live alone and deal with it while I apparently had all the problems. I mean, I did have problems leaving home. I dreaded it because I loved my momma too much, but heck, Leah didn't have to go into this again.

"This has nothing to do with that," I answered. "I'm not lying to you."

"Well, don't worry. I'll be over to see you this evening, so don't go disappearing on me." Leah gave a nervous chuckle this time, apparently just now hearing my sincerity. "And make sure you call about that window. I don't want all the AC flying out of the house."

I sneered and said, "Fine."

Unbelievable. She wasn't letting up one bit. Maybe I should have called my mom instead; she would have at least given me an ear without freaking out. At least out loud. I don't know, really. Maybe I was losing it. "I'll talk to you later."

I hung up the phone afterwards, setting it on the table, and then took my hair into a ball with both hands. After a few more deep breaths, I let go, letting my arms hang down my sides as I turned my head to look at the broken window. I hated making phone calls.

. . . . . . .

Some guy was supposed to stop by in a few hours to take a look at the window to get it replaced. So now I was playing the waiting game, unable to go out of the house, or to settle and do anything else. These kinds of repair dudes always gave you a weird time frame, in my case somewhere between 3 to 7 PM, when they may or may not show up.

I hated bullshit like this. Like, seriously, why don't they just give you a direct time and come already? I understand you have a job, and other clients, but everyone else has lives too.

I wanted to do some laundry, and maybe fix up the console connected to the TV so I could have some chores out of the way. By doing so I'd feel better about leaving the house come Monday for my fourth interview since graduation. Although the one potential job in New York was pretty cool, I didn't like the idea of living too far from home. I didn't see any reason to go that far away.

Yikes, I _really_ didn't like that idea. I could at least drive home to see my mom if I wanted to, and of course I had my cousin housing with me at this point, so I had company. But going that far without anyone I knew? Alone? I didn't want that.

My dream was to buy my mom a big, beautiful house and unite the family, not to leave it. The interview I had in a few days would perhaps be the better job opening, if I was invited back for a second interview. Here in Houston I could get around. It was crowded as heck, and with every passing year was becoming more and more like New York, but it still wasn't there yet. It was still home.

"Being a grownup sucks," I whispered to myself as I stretched, putting my legs up on the sofa and began staring up at the ceiling.

I heard the wind blow outside, the open window in the kitchen making a whistle as the air slipped through the shards of glass that still remained. Sometimes in those moments of silence I kept anticipating my cat jumping on my stomach, or my mom to call me from the other room, but I was met with silence. The only reason I moved out of the house was because of my dad pushing me do so, but I often thought, in moments like this, if it was even worth it. Yeah, I had Leah, but seriously, she's gone all day long, always out for days visiting her side of the family, and when she does come home all we do is stare at the TV with the occasional side fangirling over whatever show we were currently into. There's no deep conversation. Just kinda bleh stuff. I don't even really know how to describe it. It just wasn't _home_ for me.

A sound broke my train of thought. A car door shutting clanged in the driveway, causing me to sit up. I had anticipated it to be Leah at first, though I then realized that it was still way too early for that. Could it be that the window guy was already here? The thought of that was a little too good to be true. I often recalled these situations lasting hours, sometimes days to get someone's ass to the house to fix something.

In the time it took for my dog back at my real home to run to the door and unleash a series of painfully loud barks, there was a knock at the door. This guy must be on a roll today for him to get here so quickly _and_ to run to my door so fast.

I sat up, puffed my hair up to make myself look more suitable, and walked to the door. Upon opening it I was greeted by a relatively tall, sort of weird looking dude with curly red hair, glasses, and a white labcoat. This confused me to such an extent that my thoughts filtered into my expression as I raised a brow.

"Yo, what's with the labcoat?" I started, letting loose a smile to try and hide my awkward feelings of the situation. "I called a repair guy, not someone to come run tests on me."

"I have to tell you, dear, that the 'repair guy' isn't going to be here," the stranger said, rather too seriously and with too strong of a smirk for my taste. "You're coming with me."

" _What_ _?_ " I gasped. I was about to start asking questions, thinking I was under some quarantine arrest from an illness I may have caught on the flight from yesterday, but before I could mutter out a single syllable, two small octopuses appeared from behind the guy, giving me a serious glare as if they were about to strangle me. I stepped back into the house instantly, almost falling over, and slammed the door shut, locking it as fast as I could. 

"You—you step back right now!" I said through the door, though the guy continued to keep the same expression as before glued to his face, with the two little octopuses staring along with him. "I have done nothing wrong! I demand a lawyer!" I don't even know why I said that but that's all that managed to come out of my mouth at that point.

I turned around and ran to the living room, picking up my phone to dial 911. Through my panic I realized the lines were cut.

" _Holy shit…_ " I muttered with wide eyes. My heart was beginning to race and my head was starting to grow light. I then dashed for my purse hanging on the closet door, and reached inside to grab my cell phone. Luckily, whoever this freak was, he couldn't disconnect _that_.

I started dialing when I heard the crunch of the window at the kitchen. My eyes shot up to see the two little octopuses crawl in, and to the left, the back door revealing the man from the front door. I have no idea how he got there so fast.

" _Oh god oh god oh god oh god_ …" I started panting, trying to dial faster. I managed to strike in the emergency number and place the phone to my ear, though I saw that the octopuses by that time had opened the door for the guy to walk in. He seemed to actually _glide_ in, which was something so bizarre that for a second I thought I'd faint.

It wasn't even a second after noticing him slink in, however, that my arm was grabbed tightly, causing me to drop my cell onto the floor and the other arm to be instantly grabbed afterward. His two intruding pets had gotten a hold of me, surprisingly also able to hold my arms down for the stranger to finally approach me.

"It's easier not to struggle, believe me. I've kidnapped thousands of penguins before; I'm sure one human girl isn't as difficult." He reached down, his arm actually stretching to grab my phone. Once he got a hold of it he cancelled the call I had placed in to start dialing another.

After a few rings a gurgle sound answered, allowing the super geek in front of me to begin speaking. "Tom, cruise the helicopter this way," the stranger said into my cell, causing my fear, for a moment to dissipate due to the pun. After his order the guy looked down at me, resuming his strong smirk. "Now that I have you where I want you, I want to tell you there is no need to fear. I simply cannot allow you to go around telling everyone about the break in last night."

"I won't tell anyone else!" I pleaded, hoping by admitting defeat that I could get out of this mess. "I promise my lips are sealed. I didn't see any octopuses, or snow globes, cross my heart!"

"I'm afraid that's not enough, dear. You have to come with me." He nodded at the octopuses at my sides, and a large sack was instantly dropped over my head.

That would be the last I'd see of my house for a very long time.


	2. He is DAVE!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have placed some minor headcanons in my story to make Kailey and Dave (along with other characters) be able to speak to each other and it make sense. I realize that animals and humans don't communicate in the Madagascar or POM films, but this change was necessary to make the fic work. Other than that, I'm staying true to canon!

I had no idea what was happening. Through a series of blind, near full–fledged panic episodes, I relied solely on my other senses to try and decipher what was going on. 

At one point I was picked up and brought into the car from the driveway, which was easy to tell based on the sound of shutting doors and the engine starting. Whoever started driving, however, was absolutely terrible at it, because the vehicle weaved, slid, and floored it the entire way. I'm guessing a few red lights were run, because I heard honks from other cars literally every thirty seconds and a few F bombs from pissed off drivers. 

Usually my area was patrolled by police officers, and I kept anticipating this nerd and his squad to be pulled over at any time, but alas, that never happened. It wasn't until one final sharp turn and a sudden stop that I hear the sound of a helicopter heading in our direction.

"Ah, Tom's just in time," I heard my kidnapper say. With every passing second the sound of a helicopter grew louder and louder, and once the sound indicated that it was right outside and had landed, the car doors opened, and again I was grabbed and carried over to our new line of transportation.

It was extremely difficult to hear anything due to the chopper's roaring engine and spiralling blades above us that began picking up the instant I was put down, but I could still faintly hear the stranger conversing with other grumbles and gobbles—more octopuses, no doubt. 

Seriously, what the actual hell was happening, _octopuses_ _?_ I still was trying to comprehend that I was being kidnapped by a dude with octopuses smart enough to actually listen to him. Wait a second—why the hell can he even _talk_ to octopuses? How do these things understand him? Was this guy some sort of animal communicator, or super human, or God knows what else?!

"Yes, Whitney, Houston is here. We're in Houston," I heard my captor say, rather matter-of-fact, and again completely missing that he was punning the heck out of celebrity names. I probably would have laughed but I was too terrified at that point to do so. I also would have given fighting back a try, but not only was I now on an airborne helicopter, but I had no idea what this guy would do to me if I didn't comply.

After that it was pretty straightforward for a while. The helicopter began flying for a really long time—so long that I was debating if I should just go ahead and jump out myself and just end it all there. I mean, hell, if you're being kidnapped and being taken to God only knows where, sometimes dying is probably the best option you could have at that point.

I sat up from my seat: apparently that little of movement caused attention to myself, because the next thing I knew I had an octopus on both my arms holding me down again. Out of frustration I finally yelled.

"TELL YOUR SLIMY ASS FRIENDS TO GET THE HELL OFF OF ME!" It was so loud that for a second the helicopter jolted, apparently scaring the pilot. A bunch of gobbles filled the aircraft until their leader shushed them.

"Continue your jobs," the stranger stated. He switched from commanding his octopus henchmen to me. "And please, is there really need for yelling? I felt like having my friends here put a gag on you would be degrading enough for a lady."

Well at least he was a gentleman. Maybe he should get an award for being ' _not as bad as you could have been_ '.

"Of course I'm going to yell; what the flying shit is going on?!" I managed to yell a little more softly that time for the sake of Tom cruising the chopper. Pfftt. "Tell me what's going on right now or I'll jump out of this damn thing!"

"Please don't, I would rather you be kept alive," The stranger responded, still calmly. "Having people killed on my watch isn't preferable." A few seconds slipped by before he started speaking again, this time to his henchmen. "Whitney, port is prepared for our landing, correct?"

A series of grumbles and gurgles responded.

"Good, and the submarine is fixed and prepared for departure?"

More gurgles.

"I'm so proud of you all, really. With me being gone that long, trapped in that wretched snow globe, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to have a second go with my plans of revenge. They'll never see me coming—we'll be back stronger than ever!"

Holy shit, was this guy an evil genius too? With all this talk about revenge? What the hell did I just get myself into?!

Before I thought for the second time of the idea of feeling my way out and jumping for it, the course of the chopper changed. Every nudge of the machine was an earthquake in my perspective, and since I was blinded by the sack over my head I had to further guess what was going on. We weren't moving forward, that was for sure. It wasn't until I felt gravity shift did I realize we were actually going down. We were finally landing.

"Ah, it's beautiful! What a glorious sight!" the stranger exclaimed gleefully. "It looks brand new! Ugh, did I tell you guys how proud I am of you, because I seriously am right now!"

"Where are we?!" I gasped. Hearing all this talking and not being able to see anything was driving me nuts.

"In due time, dearest," The stranger responded. It was literally seconds later when the chopper hit the ground, causing me to seize up with worry and anticipation as to what was going to happen next. Even before the chopper blades came to a complete halt the doors opened on my side, and I was taken out again.

As I was being forced down what sounded like a dock, I slowly but surely felt the sunshine dissipate from my skin. It wasn't until my footsteps on the wooden docks changed to a clang from metal floors did I twist my body around to escape from the octopuses taking me further inside.

"I'm not going anywhere else! Let me go!" I fussed. "Wherever we are—you're taking me back, now!"

This time, instead of another small octopus grabbing onto me to pull me inside, my right arm was met with the grasp of a palm. It was the stranger. I involuntarily shuddered. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but for some reason this guy's touch was weird. Like, it was familiar, but different. It felt like it wasn't human.

"Now, now, please don't fret," he said to me, his voice far more clear now that we had left the helicopter at its landing site. "We're almost there."

Our footsteps seemed to grow louder as we walked inside. Every click of my shoe against the metal floors was like the ticking of a clock as you anticipated for something bad to happen. Quite honestly, in those moments of blind terror, I was anticipating for the worst to happen. Plenty of scenarios swept through my head, from my initial worries of catching some illness and being brought to a government quarantine, to the fact that this guy had been talking about revenge and was going to use me as some sort of guinea pig to whoever he was targeting.

I heard the doors from way down the hall shut behind us, causing it to grow even darker than it was before from under the sack. After that, fluorescent lights flickered on, but only mildly, triggering a sequence of events that I wouldn't soon forget.

Suddenly, to my surprise, the bag was ripped from my head. Right in front of my face was the nerd from before, his rather cocky smirk now replaced with a wide grin. He was obviously drenched with excitement.

"We're here!" he said, stepping back only after his greeting to reveal where we were. His arms stretched outward to showcase a giant room with a huge lazer behind him, something that in all honestly looked like it was taken straight from a science fiction movie. Among the walls of the room were an assortment of controls, and to the upper corners of the room were small empty cages. Taking this all in at once, I tried again to figure out what all this meant. Ray guns? Cages? Weird laboratories?

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions…" he added, lowering his arms to take both palms into his hands, casually clasping them together upon waiting for a response from me. I probably stood there for a good twenty seconds, jaw dropped and everything, before I managed to resume breathing.

"Speechless, I know. He grinned, chuckling heartily. "This is my life's work. And you're in my submarine! As for me, you've probably heard of me before, am I right?"

My eyes shifted around, from the laser to the cages, and finally to him before I responded. "I've never seen you in my life," was all I got out, but I managed to get a tid bit of sarcasm in there.

"Are you sure? I'm very well known to you humans… They call me Dr. Octavius Brine. Famous geneticist, cheese enthusiast, and donor to NPR pledge drives, among many things."

"I don't keep up with the scientific community," I answered.

"Then you must have heard about the news earlier this last year about the man who single handedly rescued thousands of penguins and brought them back to New York, yes?"

"No… No, I didn—WAIT! Oh, wait, nevermind. No."

"You're telling me you didn't hear about the gross penguin incident?"

"Errr… nope. Sorry."

Dr. Brine facepalmed. I could tell he probably wasn't used to this kind of thing, not being known by someone. I mean, I probably would be disappointed too if I wasn't recognized for something, but honestly, the news only covered what they wanted and this sounded like it was way too different for my typical news stations to talk about.

"The media is terrible when it comes to getting important matters across," Dr. Brine finally spoke. "But no matter. You know me now and that's all that counts. You will be getting to know me for a very long time, dear. But for now, let's begin with you."

At that moment he took out my cell phone from his lab coat. I gasped, remaining where I stood like a deer caught in headlights. I saw him smile a few times as he looked through the contents of the phone, then he turned it around to show me my Facebook page. "This is you, right?" he said, smirking again.

I knew it was better to log off your social networking sites after you used them, but I never did that. Let's just hope he didn't decide to click on my Tumblr.

"Yes…" I stated softly, still nervous about the situation.

"Well then, Ms. Kailey. It says here you just recently graduated from a university. Tell me, what was your major?"

"Errr… HR."

"What's HR?"

"Human Resources."

"Oh yes, a business degree. And an organizational degree for that matter. Yes, you will do very nicely here. Of course the human aspect won't work, but that won't matter."

I waited for him to continue, my heart racing now for what was to come. I felt shaky, as if I was going to fall down, but with all my strength I kept myself up as if there was nothing wrong. The only thing I couldn't quite hide was my breathing, which seemed to grow deeper as I tried to control my emotions.

"Now, you may be wondering exactly why you're here. I can't go into huge detail yet, but my henchmen and I were listening to your conversation this morning with your cousin."

If I wasn't terrified already, that pushed me off the edge. "You were _l_ _istening_ to me?" I hissed.

"Well, yes. You know some very valuable information and I couldn't let that kind of info spread into the human world. You see, it's not the humans I'm worried about, but I do know that once a topic is started it spreads all over the place. The wrong individuals might come across this information: my enemies." He paused, looked at me intently, then started to walk back over to me. 

As he was heading my direction I started to step back, little bits at a time at first, though with larger steps as he was getting closer. He wouldn't let up his overly confident expression; there wasn't a man in the world I knew that carried himself so confidently like he did, which in my current situation only added to my anxiety.

"Do you remember the snow globe you found?" he asked, this time his voice growing soft. He stopped right in front of me then, allowing the question to remain stationed in between us; waiting for my answer.

"Yes," I stated. My eyes shifted around his face, trying to avoid direct eye contact.

He smiled. "If it wasn't for you I'd still be in that airport without the ability to be rescued by my loyal henchmen. And more importantly, you didn't care about the snow globe itself like that little girl, you were concerned about _me_."

"What are you talking about? There was a tiny octopus in that snow globe."

"I know." He smiled crookedly again, stepping back a couple feet. "This is just a persona I invented to blend in with you humans. Now, you'll be the first to know who I really am. I am more than you could imagine! I am phantom! I am… DAVE!"

As his sentence ended, I saw my life flash through my eyes within a split second. Everything I ever knew, ever saw, or ever learned about reality and what was real flew into a metaphorical, ever spinning turbine of shock like shit hitting a fan. Shit literally hit the fan. I cannot tell you how accurate this description of my perception of everything changing was.

Instantly, and within a blink of an eye, Dr. Brine transformed into a purple, grinning octopus. Like, do octopus even have mouths and teeth like that? No! But this one did. And did they really get this big? I have no idea, but he was!

As he stood there, grinning wide with all eight of his tentacles sprawled out, clothes lying on the floor and everything, I remained standing for a few more seconds, again, jaws dropped and eyes as wide as a full moon. I felt an internal timer go off in my brain: three… two… one…

My eyes rolled into the back of my head and I blacked out.

. . . . . . .

" _Helloooooo_?"

An overly long exaggerated voice filtered into my unconscious state, pulling me from my unavoidable fainting episode. I began to hear a series of concerned gurgles at first, and once my vision came to, I was greeted to a sight I honestly to God never thought I would see in my entire life. Hell, anyone's life for that matter.

Four different colored smaller octopuses surrounded the floor around me, joining Dave in their stare as they watched me wake up. My initial reaction was that this was all a dream, but the longer they looked down at me I began to realize that I was very much awake, and very much surrounded by a bunch of octopuses and their weird genius leader, Dave. 

Thinking about it now, maybe I could have handled the situation better. Ya know, it's not every day you find out that OCTOPUSES ACTUALLY TALK AND ARE TOTALLY WILLING TO KIDNAP SOMEONE IF YOU INVADE ON THEIR PLANS FOR REVENGE.

I screamed. I had no idea how else to react to a situation such as that one. Once I screamed I flailed my arms in the air, causing all of the smaller octopuses to back up. Dave remained standing where he was, unmovable but for the exception of his expression, which remained a mixture of concern and disdain. I don't blame them for getting fidgety for hearing me holler, but what did they expect? Hugs and freaking kisses? I don't think so.

"Stay _away_ from me!" I warned after my loud yell, crawling in the opposite direction from them. My eyes scanned the area around me: the lab had a few doors on either side of the room. It would be a long run for it, but I wasn't going to stick around any longer. I stood up as fast as a cat recovers from a fall and hauled ass to the closest door.

"Stop her!" Dave yelled, causing a horde of his octopus henchmen to suddenly appear from the surrounding walls. Apparently there were way more than I had thought and they were just hiding and blending in with the walls.

"You'll never take me alive!" I screamed, darting towards the door regardless that there was now a few dozen octopuses suddenly chasing me. I managed to swing the door open and run down the hallway, taking turns whenever I could to try and deter my pursuers. Despite my attempts I could still hear them right on my tail. They were _fast_.

I took another left, then passed through another big door only to end up in another large room with no exit. This room had what looked like a torture device made to look like a kiddy ride. There were so many large blades, spikes, and all sorts of traumatic things added to it that the sheer fact I was in the same room as this thing freaked me out. I was holding in all my fear until one of my arms was grabbed. I gasped as I was spun around, again, face to face with Dave.

He looked frustrated, but was exhausted after a few moments of staring at me. He could see I was absolutely terrified, which suddenly started to make him feel bad. _About time if you ask me._

"That torture ride isn't for you, just so you know," Dave tried to comfort me. After he saw that wasn't going to work to calm me down, he let loose a long, deep sigh. "Look, I'm going to put this out there straightforward for you. You can stay here and work for me, add to your resume that you worked for Dr. Octavius Brine, which mind you, would look _great_ on a resume, or I could erase your memory. Mind you, erasing your memory may or may not give you brain damage."

Take note of the word _tried_ in the previous paragraph. Although he tried to make it seem straightforward, all I heard was inevitable slavery to a purple sentient octopus with human characteristics, or brain damage. Like, what was I supposed to say? Slavery or brain damage? Brain damage or slavery?

"I didn't ask for any of this!" I finally exhaled at once.

"On the contrary, you did!" Dave responded, his incredibly crooked teeth showing as he smiled widely. "Every choice you make puts you on a path of set circumstances! And you so happened to find pity in my situation and save me. But you saw my henchmen rescue me, not to mention you decided to spill that secret with your relative, so I had no choice but to take you with me. You'll see though, dearest, that it will all work out just fine, providing that you choose to work for me and not to have your memory wiped."

"Wait a second—how _did_ you turn from a tiny little octopus to… well, _this_?" With my free arm I gestured to Dave. He leaned his head back then and gave off a deep chuckle.

"Oh deary, I was changed back to normal of course! It's a long story, but my laser which holds my Medusa Serum backfired on me. Nonetheless, it will not happen again."

"So, you're telling me… octopuses are smart? As in on level with _people_ _?_ If not more so?"

"Of course we're smart!" Dave took slight offense to that. “The only reason we haven't revealed our sentience and productivity to you humans is because it would dissolve the natural order of things. Also, avoiding human confrontation with other creatures prevents situations such as now, where you're freaking out, and I'm like, _whoa_!"

"All this time?" My eyes went from looking at him and into space, where my mind drifted off into thought. "I will never look at anything the same again—wait, then why doesn't my dog back at home talk to me? Or my cats?"

Dave frowned, apparently taking offense that I had cats and a dog. At first I thought it was because of having animals as 'pets', but boy was I about to find out some tragic backstory.

"Certain animals are unable to communicate with humans. There are too many different tiers to mention at once; but for example, fine specimens like me, who are smart enough to learn human language, are at the top of that level. Others, such as my henchmen, will understand orders but they cannot speak human. Then you have animals like house cats and dogs who… are just cute, mindless, creatures who DESERVE NONE OF THE LOVE THEY GET!"

His sudden anger caught me by surprise. I stood as still as I could; being in his grasp along with listening to him grow angrier by the second was petrifying. "What—what happened to you?" Of course my sympathy would kick in, even for Dave.

"Oh, sweetie, you wouldn't want to listen to my story. After all, it's your kind that put me through it in the first place."

I remained silent, still uncomfortable, but willing to listen. Dave saw that and continued.

"But I'm sure someone like you wouldn't have done the same as the rest of your kind. You see, a long time ago I lived in the Central Park Zoo. I was adored by thousands every single day, but like all things, humans just throw things away when something new and cuter comes along."

From his vague intro I completely understood now why he was angry with me saying I had cats and dogs. They were traditionally 'cute' animals, while Dave… well, he wasn't 'adorable' but I wouldn't say he was hideous either.

"I—I like all animals," I said, sort of stuttering at first but proceeded anyway. "I mean, I had a snake when I was a kid, and hey, octopuses are really cool."

Hearing the word 'cool' in the same sentence as 'octopuses' caused his angry furrow to flatten and his eyes to grow wide. His crooked teeth showed again as he looked at me, almost adoringly.

"You think octopuses—I'm cool? _Me_?"

"Well, errrr..." I was instantly placed in a super awkward situation. I understand people liked to be flattered but Dave was suddenly spilling all his held back emotions on me. "Yeah, that's what I said." I shrugged, trying to play it off as a casual remark.

The second I shrugged, Dave pulled me into a giant, uncomfortable, sticky, and rather breathtaking hug. Although I was letting out a series of groans, losing oxygen due to the embrace, Dave wouldn't let up. He was too overjoyed to let me go.

"Oh wow. Oh _wow wow wow_ ," Dave chattered. "We caught ourselves a good one, gentlemen! A REALLY GOOD ONE!" The little octopuses around us started gurgling happily; this sudden series of cheers lasting for a good while before I was put down from the hug.

I almost collapsed from being finally released from the embrace, but managed to remain standing, and conscious for that matter. Only after I was able to breathe for a few seconds did I swipe off the goo that had gotten onto my clothes, and returned my attention back to Dave.

"Look, this is all great, but I really should be heading home," I stated. I was hoping now that since I had made amends by now, they'd be willing to let me go. My cousin was going to visit that evening anyway, and with me being gone she'd be worried sick.

"Oh!" Dave said, pulling himself from his giddiness. "Sorry, no can do! I seriously mean it, either you work with me or I'll have to wipe your memory. Which would be a huge shame, because, wow."

Dammit. I was really hoping that would have worked that time. Alas. I tried balancing the odds now. Having Dr. Brine as an employer on a resume, with all the contributions to society Dave had made with that name, would be great. I needed a job anyway. Also, I didn't want to risk brain damage. I didn't spend thousands of dollars on school to potentially have my mind erased.

"Okay, fine," I said, wrapping my arms around myself to try and look serious. "I'll stay and work for you."

My answer was all that it took for me to be pulled into another gigantic hug, again fighting to breathe as at least six of his eight tentacles wrapped around my whole body and squeezed me. "GLORIOUS DAY!" Dave yelled. "My plans are right on track, once again, and this time, I have a loyal human assistant to help me destroy North Wind and turn those penguins into the scum they are!"

My eyes shot open. That statement was literally the only thing distracting me from being almost crushed.

"Shit," I muttered. "What have I done?"


	3. Background Check

I honestly don't know how I fell asleep that night. My 'room' might as well have been the cell room Princess Leia was put in during _Episode IV_. But then again, there wasn't much to expect for luxury in a submarine. Let alone a submarine run by freaking octopuses.

The last thing I recalled thinking that night was of how worried my cousin Leah would be. Also, knowing her, she would call and tell my mother about it. Soon enough everyone would know that I was missing and holy shit how the hell was I going to explain all this to them? _Oh, sorry I wasn't there when you got home, I was just busy being kidnapped by a talking purple octopus_. 

Even if I did say that, Leah wouldn't believe me. She wouldn't even believe me when I told her about the window incident. It was a lost cause. Somewhere down the line truth was going to be blurred and I'd be shoved off as another nut job and probably be forced to go see a psychiatrist. I guess the only positive side I could look forward to at that point would be that I wouldn't _have_ to be sent to a psychiatric center, because I was, you know, currently kidnapped.

Earlier the next morning I was awakened by the creaking of the walls. It hadn't done that whatsoever throughout the night, so hearing the sudden turning of engines in the distant halls of the massive submarine, along with slight pushes and pulls of gravity around me, caused me to sit up and walk to the door out of concern. 

My hand rose to grab a doorknob, but it didn't take me long to realize that there wasn't one. It was taking some getting used to with this high tech submarine, where doors didn't have door knobs and instead had buttons.

I knocked loudly on the door and tilted my head upwards to see through a tiny window to peer into the hallway. "Hey! How do you open this thing?" I yelled. "Let me out!"

It only took a few seconds before a small yellow octopus opened the door for me. He proceeded to make a series of gurgling noises, apparently trying to communicate with me, but of course I couldn't understand a damned thing he was saying.

"So… what's going on?" I asked, awkwardly trying to get information out of him. Regardless, he continued to gobble, and then proceeded to walk over to an intercom to the side of the door. He said something into it, and then Dave answered immediately.

"She's awake? I'll be there in a sec!" he said, again, still carrying a wave of happiness in his tone.

After that, the little yellow octopus backed away from the communicator and looked at me. We waited there awkwardly for a few moments until Dave popped from around the corner. _That was fast._

"Ah, I'm so glad you're awake! Tell me, how did you sleep? Can I get you anything?" He seemed overly chipper, which was something I wasn't used to hearing, especially now that I had been on my own with just my cousin for a long time.

"Uhhh, okay, I guess." I shrugged. I was still trying to comprehend that I was actually communicating with octopuses, especially one like Dave, who was… well, fairly unique. I'm telling you, that never becomes normal. "And, no, I'm… err, fine."

"Are you sure?" he asked again. Two of his tentacles wrapped around together like a person would do with their hands if they were anxious or concerned. I honestly didn't think I would see the tides of our situations trade places, especially so quickly. Suddenly he was the one worried? Please. It had to be an act to make me feel more comfortable; to let my guard down. I decided to play on his terms, so I shot him a command.

"I know! David, cook me breakfast."

I paused for a few seconds before my mouth started to tremble, and then burst into uncontrollable laughter. It wasn't until I realized that there was no met laughter to my pun that I stopped.

Opening my eyes, I saw Dave looking at me, confused. "It was a joke," I stated, still smiling. "You know, like you do? It's a play on words? Celebrity names? It's a…" I realized that while I was trying to explain the pun that he was absolutely not getting it. 

_Seriously_ _?_ All day yesterday he was spitting out celebrity pun after another, and he didn't even get _my_ joke? "Never mind!" I said, taking a deep breath and straightening myself up to attempt to deter my face from turning red.

"Yeah… soooo," Dave began. "Anyway, I wanted you to come with me. There are things I need to show you. Now that you're working for me you'll be let onto all the details of my plans. We've got some big things heading our way. Big things!"

"What are we gonna do?" The question seemed to slip before we could even start walking.

"Patience, dearest!" Dave said happily, taking one of his tentacles and wrapping it around my arm. "First, I need to take you to the command center. It will be easier to explain everything there."

He began to escort me, taking me down an assortment of halls and doors that I honestly couldn't coordinate through on my own. After what seemed like an endless track through a maze, we finally reached a staircase which lead us upward, close to the command bay area. Among the assortment of computer monitors and data modules, there were a few more of Dave's henchmen sitting at these controls, working with levers and information. One orange octopus in particular had my cell phone, and had it plugged into one of the many computers embedded into the walls.

"Hey! What's he doing—that's mine!" I said, tempted to run over and snatch it from him. If there was anything I hated it was when people—well, _anyone_ —looked through my phone.

"Don't worry about that," Dave said, softly squeezing my arm to get my attention. "We're simply downloading all your information into the computer. You're my assistant, so of course I need to do a background check." He grinned toothily, apparently taking slight amusement in my discomfort. "But, if I can direct your attention to the screen…" Another one of Dave's tentacles then slipped under my chin, forcing me to look towards the control area. 

There, one of the larger computer monitors caught my attention, revealing a GPS-like map of the world. A red dot was pulsing in the Gulf of Mexico, moving a bit every couple minutes. It took me a moment, but I realized that the red dot was us.

"Wait. We're moving?" I then said, connecting the dots. We had apparently departed the Texas shorelines and were heading eastward towards Florida. With every second that went by and every pulse of the red dot I became all the more anxious. Not just because I was extremely far from home, but because we were in the middle of open water. The last time I'd been on a submarine was during my trip to Hawaii a few years back on a tour, but even then it only lasted maybe an hour. Who knows how long I'd be in this damned submarine.

"We're heading towards the City of Orlando. I've tracked the penguins and they will be arriving there soon," Dave said, rather bitterly.

"Okay, first off, who the hell are these penguins?" I asked. I didn't bother asking why, since apparently he hated them enough to not need to explain. My guess was they probably messed up his previous plans. I mean, I've seen enough action movies to know when a villain hates something, and why he wanted revenge in the first place.

"Our targets are four penguins: Skipper, Rico, Kowalski, and Private." On Dave's cues the little octopus henchmen working the controls brought up data on them. "They were the ones that destroyed my first attempts at using my Medusa Serum. By kidnapping them first, any worries of them getting in my way are taken care of, and with their capture I can lead North Wind into their demise."

"And North Wind?" I asked.

I wasn't expecting Dave to get so into his role as the villain. He drew me in close, grabbing both my shoulders and looked me in the eye, almost menacingly. "Those pathetic worms have been on my tail from the very beginning. They didn't see through my disguise for a long time, but despite their initial incompetence they've been nothing but thorns in my side. They need to be taken out, once and for all."

Stunned by his sudden anger and his awkward closeness to my face, I lifted my right hand and mildly pushed him in attempts to get distance between us. 

"Yikes… err, sounds like trouble," I tried to respond, refraining from cringing due to getting his mucus on my hands. 

Attempting to connect with Dave was really hard since I had no idea how this North Wind group was firsthand. Also, I wasn't naturally a revenge seeking person. But I mean, _damn_ , this guy had serious anger problems when it came to these guys. I don't think I've ever seen so much bundled up fury before.

"Yes, they're very much trouble," Dave said, backing away from me and standing at my side like normal again. Once he finally let me go, I was given some mild relief, though only for a brief second before he started talking again. "The penguins have been traveling with a circus: friends apparently. They've been touring the Americas for quite some time now, so I've been able to look into their schedules." A pause, then his voice popped out of nowhere, and again, Dave invaded in my personal space, but this time with another one of his large crooked tooth grins. "That's where _you_ come in!" he said.

"Me?" I responded anxiously.

"This plan needs to be swift and as accurate as possible. I can't afford to mess up, so with you and I both working on capturing the penguins, things will go along much more nicely."

"Okay… I've never kidnapped anybody before, so I don't know how good at this I'll be."

"Don't be so modest, dearest. You'll do fine," Dave said. "We'll sneak into the back tents during the show and blend in with the act. Once their guards are down, we'll snatch those pathetic creatures and bring them back here."

I was nervous, yet again. How the heck was I supposed to know how to sneak in anywhere? The worst thing I've done like that was sneak into a movie at the theaters, not actually sneaking into a place and kidnapping someone! Not only that but a _bunch_ of someones! In a circus, might I add, where I would be surrounded by other animals, which I now knew were sentient, talking creatures that could probably work together and hurt me!

"Look, errr, Sir?" I asked timidly. "I really don't know if I can go through with that. Don't you have some paperwork I can do instead?"

"No no no, of course you can, and you _will._ ” Dave grinned again, backing off once more and then placing on a pair of glasses. He quickly began typing into the main computer. "And please… Call me Dave," he added.

I stood there, stunned, clenching my fingers into knots. This wasn't a joke. I was going to be forced to do a serious criminal act. Like, running red lights and stealing Pokemon cards didn't even come _close_ to this kind of thing. And there was no training or preparation for this. I was just being tossed into the mix through Dave's convenience.

I felt like I was about to piss myself when suddenly loud music broke through the room, making me jump and shiver. It wasn't until a few seconds later that I recognized it was the _Safety Dance_ , specifically being transferred through my cell phone and into the speakers around us.

The orange octopus that had been messing with my phone started gobbling to another one of Dave's henchmen, apparently confused as to why the music was playing, and so loudly for that matter. While they were busy trying to figure the device out, two green octopuses standing around started to bounce to the beat, forming gleeful expressions as the seconds passed.

"What are you doing? Turn that off!" Dave ordered at the orange octopus. "And you two!" He then gestured to the two green ones, said, “Stop dancing immediately—we're not celebrating anything yet!"

The orange one struggled for a few moments, and then shut off the music. The other one that had tried to help beside him sighed, as if disappointed.

"Charlie, sheen the computer monitors!" Dave ordered to the one that had sighed. "If you aren't busy enough to do your own chores then you'll be given more. Now hurry. I can see dust on them!"

"You just did it again," I said, looking over at Dave.

"Did what?" He glanced back, confused.

"You did another celebrity pun."

He kept staring, still confused. I could tell there was absolutely no getting through to him with this. Dave apparently wasn't aware of human pop culture.

I facepalmed as my teeth uncontrollably clenched together out of frustration. "Don't worry about it," I answered, as calmly as I could. "Never mind." Boy, this was going to be a _long_ day. "Anyway, what are you doing there?"

"Oh, just working on finishing this upload…" He trailed off as he looked back onto the computer screen, obviously perplexed by it. "What button was it again?" He narrowed his eyes as he looked, still confused.

I rolled my eyes. Even with being surrounded by all this technology he couldn't work a computer? I guess I had to give him _some_ credit. He was an octopus after all, and managed to gather a following and have a submarine, helicopters, and probably tons of other machines at his disposal. "Can I help?" I offered.

"Why, yes. You can, actually," Dave smiled at me, moving a tentacle like a person would do a 'come hither' sort of gesture with their index finger.

Awkwardly, I came over, attempting to get to work at opening the file while Dave looked over my shoulder. Despite how he made it out to be, it was really easy to work the thing. I mean, it was an illegal copy of Windows 7, so of course I knew it like the back of my hand. "Which file do you want me to open?" I asked.

"That one.” He pointed at the screen, leading me to click the file he wanted. A few seconds passed while an upload screen appeared, and then suddenly, like a wet towel hitting me in the face, I was smacked with a feed of all the information on my phone. Everything. Every damned thing.

"What the hell!" I yelled, stretching my body over the screen in desperation. I felt my face turn completely red.

"I told you, I need to look over your information," Dave said casually. Suddenly I felt one of his tentacles wrap around my waist, then pull me from the screen, causing me to back off enough for him to take a look. I tried to struggle, but it was really no use.

"Turn it off!" I yelled again.

"Nice selfie," he joked, smirking as he peered through his glasses at the screen. "What are you so concerned about? It's not like you have anything to hide."

"What are you talking about, of course I have things to hide!" I said through clenched teeth. I admit I didn't have as bad of things to hide as he did, but… wow, this was awkward.

"You write poetry? And what is this, your blog?"

"STOP!" I felt my eyes go wide as the cursor moved towards the extra files.

In that brief moment, Dave hesitated, allowing a soft chuckle to escape his throat. "It's inevitable, my dear. The background check is needed. You can leave if you want, but I'm still going to have to look at your information."

Despite his offer to let me leave, he still had a strong grip on my body. I watched in complete helplessness as he opened my blog, suddenly then all my personal information blowing up on the screen in all purple letters and pictures of myself and things that I liked. I literally felt like my heart was about to blow out of my esophagus.

"Let's see… Kailey, recent graduate in Industrial Psychology/HR, 5'5, brown hair, brown eyes… loves _cats_ _?_ " His eye twitched for a brief second, apparently out of jealousy. Despite that, he continued reading aloud. "Favorite color, purple. Nice. Single. Nice. Asexual? What's that?"

Through my already stifled emotions, I was suddenly asked what asexuality was by a _freaking octopus_. I mean, it was hard enough giving that giant vocab lesson to my mother. I wasn't sure how much Dave could comprehend and I didn't want to put myself in another awkward situation anyway.

"Google it yourself," I snapped, trying to suppress my complete awkward terror.

"Google?" Dave asked. "You mean that search thing on the internet?"

"God… yes. Yes." I put my hands on my cheeks, trying to get my face to cool off from all this stress.

"Maybe later," Dave responded, then continued reading. "Okay, let's see… you like video games. Good, that means you have decent hand-eye coordination. Your favorites are Metroid Prime, Skyrim, Pokemon, Portal 2… Games you _want_ to play are, Mass Effect 4 and… Octodad? What's Octodad?"

My fingers, which were still on my cheeks, slowly went into my hair, then I pulled. I tried to prepare myself to explain, not really because of the subject matter itself at that split second, but because of how already nerve-wracked I was. However that would change quickly as I started to talk.

"It's a game about an octopus that disguises himself as a human man and ends up marrying a human g—g—" I paused, eyes wide as despite my efforts my face turned red again. The situation I was in, applied with the subject matter, was so absolutely out of this world that I had to stop myself. "You know what, never mind. Forget it."

"I'll have to Google that later too then," Dave said rather straightforwardly, then shut off the data. I felt my heart fall back in place in my chest as Dave finally let me go, relieving me temporarily of my downward spiral into potential insanity.

"Anyways, I had best prepare for our meeting with the penguins," Dave spoke, and began to walk out of the command bay. "Hopefully we'll be there by this evening, providing the submarine makes good time around the gulf."

"What am I supposed to do?" I asked, still standing in the same spot. Surely he'd give me some sort of idea of what exactly I'd be doing, or preparing for. After all, he had only told me just now that I would be going in with him to capture these guys, and that's it.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'll tell you everything you need to know once we make landfall and head that direction," Dave responded, heading down the staircase.

"Wait—you can't be serious!" I yelled back. However, his only response was a shutting hatch. He had apparently already vanished through the door and into the depths of his submarine. For the first time since I got there, I felt like sobbing tears of pathetic worry and disdain. I was about to become a freaking criminal. _I was going to have to kidnap somebody_.

"Oh God, what am I going to do?" I muttered to myself, as suddenly the little octopuses started playing the _Safety Dance_ again in the speakers around me.


	4. Criminals in Desguise

"Dave? Dave… look, we've got to talk."

My voice seemed to fall into the submarine, disappearing into the many halls and chambers like a water soaking into a sponge. 

It had been hours since I had last seen him, this resulting in leaving me with my thoughts once again about what was to come. Of course I ran into his henchmen, but the communication barrier made it absolutely worthless in my attempts to talk to them. It seemed the henchmen would rather ignore me at that point then attempt to make small talk anyway; as a matter of fact they were more preoccupied with my cell phone, putting that damned song on repeat over and over again, than they were to bother watching me. Which was okay on my watch, I mean, at least I was able to slip away from the command bay and venture into the submarine myself. I was getting tired of that song anyway. I just wish they knew that I had a ton more songs in my music library.

"Dave, seriously, this is important!" I tried making my voice louder, but I was met with the same dead-end effect with my voice disappearing into the sub. I was beginning to think that it was a useless decision to look for him at that point.

This place, in my perception, was so big that looking for just one person... well, octopus (whatever) might as well be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I then came to a decision that I should start looking in rooms, so I continued to do that for some time, pressing button after button to only find more of his henchmen instead of Dave himself.

I was finally about to give up and head back to the command bay when I finally heard his voice filter from behind a door just to the left of me.

"Daniel, Craig, what do you think?" It was so obviously Dave that it hurt. A couple of gobbles responded to him, apparently giving him compliments. Even in octopus language certain verbal cues could be distinguished when it came to their mood.

I was just happy I finally found him. Also, a little irritated, per the norm. I was cooped up in the command bay pretty much all day, tearing my hair out, wondering how this was all going to unfold. I wanted to tell him straightforward how I felt, and so with all my bundled up emotions I opened the door and stomped in, prepared to give him a piece of my mind.

"Dave, look, we have to—AHHHHHHHHH!"

Cut short and left hollering, it only took less than a second for my brain to process what was in front of me. Dave, in this case, semi-Dave, who was halfway into his Dr. Brine persona, was changing. I mean, I don't really know how to describe what I saw, or why it freaked me out so bad, since you know, Dave doesn't have _those_ kinds of parts, but my brain seemed to divert from my conscious reality and connected Dr. Brine with an actual naked man.

"AHHHHH!" I was met with a scream from Dave, followed by a bunch of gobbles from his worried henchmen. It was then that I covered my eyes, and fell backwards in attempts to leave the room, though ended up tripping and falling on my ass instead.

"What the flying shit!?" I yelled, attempting to catch my breath. I placed a hand on the floor to try and sit up, while still continually keeping my other hand over my eyes. I didn't even have a second to try to get up before I felt Dave beside me, though.

"You're not going to faint, are you?" he asked with concern. I felt him try to wrap his tentacles around me to help me up, but that just freaked me out even more.

"Don't touch me!" I asserted, taking the hand I was using to cover my eyes and pushed it towards him, in a sort of 'back off' kinda way. Instead he took that as an opportunity to pull me up, with ease onto my feet. I finally managed to turn my head towards him, which thankfully for me, by that time he had gotten a red and black magician suit on, now completely changed into his Dr. Brine persona.

"Do you need to sit down?" he continued. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting you… to, well, be here."

"I'm _fine_ ," I sneered, for a moment attempting to regain composure before I placed full attention on him. Even when I did finally manage to look him in the eye, I still felt rattled from the incident. It was extremely difficult to see Dr. Brine as… well, Dave the octopus. His disguise was so convincing that I had to constantly remind myself that he wasn't actually a human being.

"If you're okay, then this is the perfect time to tell you what's going on!" he responded excitedly. It seemed whenever he had something to tell me was when he was the most excited. "Elijah, would you go get her outfit for me?" He turned to look at one of the henchmen that had been in the room with him.

"Outfit?" I responded. "What are you talking about?" Elijah went ahead and left into the back of the room, leaving me with Dave, Daniel and Craig. _Pfftt._

"We're supposed to blend in with the circus act," Dave explained, gesturing to his current outfit. "We don't want the penguins to know who we are."

"Look, I'm not worried about me all that much, but won't they know who _you_ are?" I tried to reason. "I mean, Dr. Brine is famous, you're obviously going to stick out like a sore thumb."

"Oh, I have something to fix that," Dave said, turning around for a second, then quickly swung back my way, this time wearing a top hat and a fake black mustache, which clashed terribly with his red haired wig. "Ta-da! What do you think? Pretty great, huh? They won't be able to see through this."

I looked his face up and down, almost pitying him. "That has to be the shittiest disguise I've ever seen," I admitted. "Don't you have like… another wig that will match that fake ass mustache?"

"It's the only one I have," Dave said with strain in his voice. "And what do you mean? This is flawless! Even my henchmen don't recognize me!"

Daniel and Craig, who had been standing aside, nodded their heads in agreement with Dave, causing Dave to gloat more with his looks.

"Yeahhhh, whatever you say," I cringed for a moment, out of pure worry. I could tell it was him no problem, but then again I didn't know how well penguins could distinguish between people, so I had to put some faith in Dave on this. After all, he knew more about them than me.

"Ah, Elijah! Come here! Bring the outfit this way." Dave's attention then fell to his other henchmen, who brought in a shiny, sparkly dress, with a hue that matched what red was on his magician suit. Seeing it made me instantly think of a Jessica Rabbit sort of getup, which put me off slightly. Not that it looked bad, but if that was what I was supposed to be wearing, then _no thanks._

"I'm not wearing that," I stated instantly, crossing my arms tightly over my chest as I made my stance more stable.

"What do you mean, you have to wear it!" Dave gasped. "You can't go into a circus looking like a regular visitor! You gotta look the part!"

"Yikes… yeah, don't think so," I continued, keeping my first answer clear. "Besides, there's something I need to tell you."

"Whatever you have to say will have to wait!" Dave said, his tone still full of concern for his plans. "You have to wear it. And you gotta put it on soon, because we're going to make landfall."

" _What_ _?_ " My eyes widened as I became anxious again. I didn't realize we were already that close to Orlando. "No, wait, you see, I need to tell you that I don't think I can go through with this! I mean, kidnapping someone?"

He seemed to ignore me, especially when the submarine began shifting, followed quickly by the sounding of a short alarm that filled the halls to let everyone know we were apparently closer than I had anticipated. _Much_ closer than I had anticipated.

"You got thirty minutes," Dave said. He took the dress from Elijah and threw it in my arms, and then began walking out the door to leave me be. He stopped only after he opened the hatch, however, and turned around to face me, giving another one of his strong smirks. "This is just the beginning," Dave stated, "but I can already taste victory."

. . . . . . .

"All right gentlemen, stay close and wait for my commands!" Dave's voice filled the submarine’s main chamber, causing an excited chatter to escape from his henchmen. A set of cages were set up to the sides, along with other things needed for the capture of the four penguins. Dave himself stood on the elevator platform, looking over his disguise as a prior precaution before the mission was to set out.

Overall, he seemed extremely confident while I stood off to the side, feeling exposed and nervous as usual, only now with my ‘disguise’ this adding to those feelings tenfold.

"I can't walk in these damned heels," I hissed, and purposely glared over at Dave. It was only when I spoke up did he look up from all his crazy contraptions and preparations, then to me.

"Oh wow," he said, moving his glasses around his face as he looked in my direction. "Kailey, dearest, you look lovely! I guess those sayings are pretty accurate, the lady does make the dress." He paused momentarily, then responded to my outburst. "And don't worry about that. You won't have to do too much walking. Just do as I say and everything will work out fine."

"How long is this going to take?" I remained standing where I was, keeping my arms tightly wrapped around me as a way to comfort myself.

"As long as it needs to take, dearest. Now come here, we need to get going. The circus awaits!" Dave declared, and extended a hand outwards towards me, making sure to retain his smile as a way to show me that he had everything under control.

Yeah, he seemed to have everything under control, but I sure didn't. How was I supposed to act normally when I was about to do a serious kidnapping? I could barely give a speech without trembling or make a freaking phone call without having to prep myself!

"I can't do this," I admitted. My eyes started shifting around the ground then as I tried to further comfort myself. I really wish I was safe at home at that point. And the funny thing about all this was that I let myself get nervous about job interviews. Boy, did this turn my perspective around.

"Trust me," he said, continually smiling my direction. His hand remained extended, for once providing patience to the situation, which was a surprise within itself. It took me a moment, but I finally let myself walk forward, and hesitantly, but eventually, took his extended palm.

Quickly he pulled me up onto the platform, with one arm holding onto me then another extending a hand upward as if to grab onto something. "Tommy, Lee, Jones! Take us up!" he commanded, triggering the ceiling above us to begin opening and the platform to start rising.

Once the hatch above us opened, I instantly heard the sound of a chopper, along with the sound of a clank on the platform among us. I found my head turning to the floor, leading me to see a ladder that had been thrown from the helicopter, which was obviously above us, and Dave grabbing hold of it, then placing a foot onto one of the handles.

"You might want to hang onto me." His smile turned into a smirk then, at that same moment the realization took over me that we were actually about to fly straight out of the submarine and directly into the sky.

" _Hell no_!" I reacted badly to the situation as usual, though my decision to hang on remained in the air for a brief moment until I actually felt the tug of the chopper start to take us up. For maybe a millisecond I contemplated pushing away from Dave and remain standing on the platform, though that idea of getting out of the situation evaded me.

Within a second we started lifting into the air, triggering a serious case of panic as I held onto the only thing I could, which was Dave. Embarrassment couldn't even squeeze its way into my psyche at that time, since in a matter of moments I was hundreds of feet in the air, hair flying, heart pounding, and gazing miles beyond into the landmass ahead that was Florida.

"It's best not to look down!" Dave yelled to me through the loud wind around us.

"Screw you, you asshole!" I yelled back, wanting to punch him in the face, though due to having to hold on for my life that wasn't an option.

"Now that's just hurtful!" Dave responded, however, even through the loud turbulence I heard a wave of sarcasm in his voice. Apparently my insults didn't faze him at all. "I thought you'd like to see the sights. You've been cooped up in my submarine for quite some time now!"

I could only roll my eyes and try to remain calm. "Yeah, that's nice and all, but it would have been better to get _into_ the helicopter!" I responded, attempting to show my irritation and fear for the situation.

"Ohhh, fine. On our way back we'll ride in the chopper," Dave said, though this only mildly relieved me of my stress. That meant we had to ride all the way to Orlando like this. _All the way there_.

I guess it wasn't so bad after a while. I mean, whoever was piloting the chopper was doing a pretty good job, and Dave had a good grip on me, so it wasn't like I would fall. But still. _What the actual hell_ _?_ Never in my life would I have considered I'd be going all James Bond with a freaking octopus. If a heart attack wasn't going to kill me then who knows what was. My second guess was insanity. That seemed to fit the bill quite nicely.

Once we finally made it to Orlando and landed a bit a ways from the circus, I instantly fell to the ground, for a second contemplating on kissing a large rock that remained stationary in the grass. Though, alas, my relief was literally pulled from me when Dave forced me back onto my feet, took out a comb and started fixing my hair for me. I stood there and let him do it for a few seconds before I flipped my shit again.

"What are you doing? Stop!" I yelled.

"The wind messed up your hair, so it needs to be combed."

"Then I'll do it myself!" I snatched the comb from his hand, gripping it tightly, gave him another glare, then started to brush myself. Literally the only downside to long hair was how badly it got tangled, in this case nearly a rat's nest to personify how I felt.

"All right, Kailey dearest, listen to me carefully," Dave proceeded to speak. "The henchmen and I are going to take care of all the difficult stuff. All you need to do is go into the backstage tents and find the penguins. They are already scheduled to be part of the magic act, so they won't expect a thing when they see you. Just lead them onto the stage area when their time is up and follow my lead."

"How long is that going to take?" I asked.

"Not too long. Sunset is in about forty minutes, so you have until that time to find where they are and gain their trust. Oh, and uhh, you might want to keep conversation at a minimum. They don't know that you know they can talk."

"Well shit, thanks a lot," I snickered nervously. I tried to look on the bright side: at least I wouldn't have to talk to them. And if they saw me like any other human, there would be no need for communication.

Without so much as a goodbye or a good luck, Dave started towards the larger tent area where the people would gather for the show. I wanted to call out to him and ask more questions but he seemed way too focused now to try and give me any more advice. 

So I was then stuck deciding exactly how I was going to go about doing this. He did leave me alone, so I could always try to escape, but at the same time I was in an overly sparkly dress, in a city I didn't know, surrounded by strangers. So, yeah, at that time, running away was the last thing I wanted to do. I figured I'd get this entire shenanigan over with and everything will be normal soon enough.

"All right, Kailey, you got this." I coached myself softly as I began walking towards the back tents. "They're just penguins. How bad can penguins possibly be? And circus animals? Pushovers. Nothing but pushovers. You totally got this."

As I drew in closer to the tent I began to hear the sound of music, along with colorful lights flickering from the inside of the tent to certain beats of the song. It sounded like that _I Like to Move It_ song, or whatever, but there were additional horribly sung side lyrics that kept repeating "afro circus" over and over again. _What the hell was an afro circus?_

Attempting to dismiss the music, I finally made it outside the tent. I took in a deep breath, prepping myself for whatever I was about to face, and walked in.

Whatever an afro circus was, well, it was whatever clusterfuck was right in front of me. Colorful lights flickered around the room, almost giving me a headache, while a group of animals danced around.

A Zebra in particular was wearing a colorful clown afro wig. A lion stood on two feet, and a giraffe and a hippo looked longingly and lovingly at each other as if they were a couple. Shit, they _were_ a couple. 

The strangest thing about this entire situation, however, was the fact that I didn't see them as mere animals anymore. I could easily pinpoint how human they looked at times. These human characteristics were something that I never noticed before; it was like a fourth freaking wall had been broken, like I was the first person to escape Plato's allegory of the freaking cave.

This went on for a few more seconds, until a tiny mouse lemur darted in front of me and stared for a few seconds. He gave me an adorable smile, his big gold eyes reminding me of literal coins as we exchanged glances. However, the cuteness seemed to diminish the longer he looked at me, causing me to become anxious once again.

"Uhhh, hey," I said, waving my hand at the mouse lemur softly. That was literally all it took for the music to abruptly and unnecessarily shut off. Immediately after the music ceased with a record skipping sound, all the animals stopped dancing and turned to stare at me.

"Did she just say 'hey' to Mort?" The hippo asked aloud to the others.

 _Shit, shit, shit_ _._ Did I just blow it? Did I literally just freaking blow my cover?

I wanted to tear my eyes out, but I was left standing there like a deer caught in headlights instead. What was I supposed to do? DAMMIT! I BLEW IT! I told Dave I wasn't prepared for this bullshit!

An additional creature ran in front of me and stood beside Mort, inspecting the situation. This time it was a regular lemur, only he wore what appeared to be a crown made of leaves and ferns.

After looking me over for a few seconds he finally spoke. "I've never seen you here before," he stated. "What do you call yourself?"

"Uhhh, me?" I swallowed nervously, straining my body as to hold onto all the contents of my lower intestines. "I'm Kailey. Errr, I was just hired to work with the magician."

The group of animals remained silent, eyes shifting from me only to the lemur who approached me directly, as if waiting for something to happen. I didn't like this one bit. I had no idea what they'd do to me now that they knew that I knew they could speak.

"Oh, so you're the new girl. And you… speak to us. That doesn't bother you, no?" the lemur then asked.

My eye twitched as I continued to strain. Through clenched teeth I managed to answer him. "No," I stated, simply and as sincerely as I could.

A few more seconds passed with this awkward stare, then all the animals dropped their concerned glances and smiled at me. A sense of relief filled the tent at that moment, allowing me to release what stored up worries I had about being caught and tortured.

"Welcome to the circus!" the lemur greeted. "I am King Julien! And these are my peasant slaves." He gestured to the other animals behind him.

"Julien, we aren't your slaves," the lion responded bluntly.

"Oh, yes you are," King Julien insisted with a grin, though returned his attention to me quickly. "Now, where are you from? Are you a princess by any chance, because that is the shiniest dress I've ever seen."

"No. I'm not a princess," I responded.

"Oh please, you must be a princess. You know, I don't normally do this to humans, but you would make a good sacrifice to the Sky Spirits."

" _What_ _?_ " A confused furrow overcame my forehead as I tried to comprehend what he just said. It was along my train of thought that the music returned, allowing the other animals in the back to resume dancing as if my presence was no big deal.

"Oh yes, a wonderful sacrifice!" King Julien said. "You are staying a while, yes? Please say yes, the night is young—in fact, it's just beginning!"

"Look, I'm actually looking for penguins," I tried to explain. "I need to… err, well, they're part of the act I'm doing with the magician." I wasn't sure how good of a liar I was, but King Julien didn't seem to be bothered by what I had just said.

"Oh, they left a few hours ago into town to get some chips or whatnot. Something about their fifth month anniversary of defeating an octopus. Heh, octopus. That's a funny word. Octo-puss. Hilarious."

"Do you know when they'll be back?" I asked, attempting to sound casual about it.

"Soon! The circus performance is about to begin, so yes, they'll be back soon. But don't worry about them, princess. Stay and relax and dance with me!"

I wrapped my arms around myself again, attempting to smile but it coming off as more of a cringe. "Sorry, I don't dance," I said.

"You don't dance you say? Then I'll do all the dancing for the both of us!" He started shaking his ass at me, which shocked me instantly. "Shaking the butt, oh yes, groove it!" he exclaimed.

"King Julien, uhhh, I thought you didn't want to be king anymore?" Mort stepped in and asked. "Why did you say you were king?"

"Shhh! I say whatever I want, Mort! Why you not realize this? Besides, Sonya would much rather be wed to a king than a peasant."

"What's going on? Who's Sonya?" I asked. My eyes narrowed in attempts to shield my eyes from the lights.

"Oh, my beloved, that she is! Yes, very sexy lady bear and quite large. But do not mind that, we dance for now!"

I felt like I wanted to go ballistic from this lemur shaking his ass at me when just then, through the tent curtains I saw them. _It was the penguins_.

"Ugh, this song again?" The one that was obviously Kowalski sighed upon hearing the music. The others were still smiling and chuckling though, seemingly dismissing the annoying song at the time.

"That was fun, wasn't it, Private? We should start doing this more often. Next time I say, let's sneak into the White House kitchen." The one I recognized as Skipper chuckled happily, patting the smaller penguin named Private on the back.

"Oh, the White House, that would be fun for sure!" Private replied. His English accent stood out among the others.

The four penguins exchanged another series of laughs before they looked across the tent and saw me. Apparently my appearance was enough to draw their attention to me as easily as a sniper to a target. Whatever I felt before in my state of panic with the other animals had now returned and was even stronger.

I didn't know how I was going to handle these guys. They were the ones Dave was targeting. These were the penguins Dave wanted me to lead outside and help capture. I didn't know what to do!

That same instant they took notice of me they started to walk over. I could feel my heart racing then, perhaps set on committing suicide and bursting from my chest like freaking _Alien_ , while my bowels were contemplating abandoning ship. Regardless, I somehow managed to portray myself calmly enough for them to not instantly start hurting me.

"Who are you?" Skipper asked with a raised brow, obviously suspicious.

I was about to try and reply to him when King Julien began talking for me. "This is Kailey! She's a princess." This didn't stop him from shaking his ass at me though.

"A princess, huh? What is she doing working at a circus then?" Skipper said, placing a wing on his beak as he looked at me. Seriously, I'm so glad I don't sweat because that would have just been something else to add to the list when it came to hiding my pure terror.

Suddenly, the crazy-eyed one with a chipped beak, Rico obviously, stepped forward and sniffed the air. His nose lead him towards me, where he crawled up my side and onto my shoulder, suddenly inspecting me like how a security guard would look someone over at an airport. What caught me off guard though was when he kneeled down, took a big whiff of my shoulder, then _licked me._

"What the heck!?" I shuddered, tempted to whack him upside the head, though I refrained to try and keep peace in the situation.

Rico made a series of grumbles to the group then jumped down back beside them, where he joined them in their suspicious stare back up at me.

"Where did that goop come from?" Skipper asked, nodding towards Rico for discovering the substance on my arm.

I didn't even realize it was there. While we were flying in Dave must have gotten some slime on me. "Oh, that?" I chuckled nervously, though trying to remain as composed and calm as possible. "There was… a kid that sneezed on me! Yeah, those children, yikes. Can't cover their mouths. Thanks for pointing it out, guys." I swiped off what goo was left on my arm, then returned my attention to them. I waited for my lie to settle, trying to determine if they bought it or not.

"You know, I think she's telling the truth, Skipper. She is new after all, so go easy on her," Private said, his kind voice giving me hope that the others would stop acting negatively towards me. I really wasn't prepared to get my ass kicked by a bunch of penguins.

The group looked to Skipper, who was still contemplating. "Those kids are pretty gross. But still," he said, glaring upwards at me. "Tell me then, Katherine! Why do you know we can talk?"

"Uh, Skipper, her name is Kailey," Kowalski corrected.

"Kailey! Why do you know we can talk?" Skipper repeated.

Again, I was left wide open to take another shot. I tried to think up of another lie, and quick. "I uhh, I worked with a cockatoo." Well, that wasn't really a full blown lie. I did have a pet cockatoo named Tukie back at my mom's house but I'm pretty sure she was too dumb to actually know how to speak. "We talk all the time. As a matter of fact, she taught me how to whistle."

The penguins looked at each other, perplexed but curious. "It's against code to speak to humans," Kowalski explained. "You may be the first human we've met who knows about this."

"Yeah. Heh, I get that a lot." I smiled, trying to play cool. "So, anyway, I'm actually working in the magic act with you guys. Pretty awesome, huh?"

"Magic acts are just illusions that someone uses to mess with the psyche and deter the senses. The brain is gullible, if anything, so there's nothing to it," Kowalski explained in a matter-of-fact sort of tone.

"I think magic acts are fun!" Private spoke up, giving a sweet smile. "I'm sure with her helping us the crowd's going to love it."

"Crowd, shmowd, who cares," Skipper said. "Let's just get this over with."

Just then, the lights dimmed, and suddenly the crowd's voice filled my ears, coming from the main tent. This caused the music to stop and the other animals to perk up.

"Show time everyone!" the hippo said, causing the group to start out the tent and towards the main canvas. More animals that I didn't notice before joined them.

"Woo! Circus! YEAH!" the zebra yelled.

"Oh, hey, you guys don't go out until a few minutes after the intro act," the lion spoke up to me and the penguins. "Just wait for your cue. You'll know it when it happens."

"Thanks," I responded, smiling in attempts to calm myself. 

Yet again, I was nervous. That might as well become my normal state of mind. Then again, I wasn't in normal circumstances. I mean, first I was kidnapped by an evil genius octopus, and now I was about to lead four cute penguins to be kidnapped, too. And the sickest thing about it was that Private was so adorable and sweet my consciousness was eating at me like ants eating a piece of meat that had fallen onto hot, steaming concrete under a midday summer sun. I contemplated on the idea that maybe I should just stop everything and get the hell out of there while I had the chance. But then again, I had no idea what Dave would do to me. He knew where I freaking _lived,_ for God's sake.

"Well, here's to another ridiculous act," Skipper said, raising a wing and giving Kowalski a high-five. All of them started high fiving each other, over and over, when suddenly Rico broke the train of high fives and slapped Skipper's butt instead.

"Here we go," I muttered, placing a hand on my forehead. God, I hoped this was going to go better than I currently thought it would.


	5. Disappering Act

"This is it. This is the day I die," I muttered to myself as I stood before the entryway towards the main canvas. I felt like a weed trapped beneath an underwater culvert; at any moment the waves would break me in two and I'd be at the mercy of the unknown drain of sewers packed with shit. Cold adrenaline overcame my body at the same time, making my senses feel numb, thus causing my reality to narrow into a tunnel vision. There was literally nothing I could do now. I was in too deep.

"Good luck, penguins," King Julien said, at first sweetly, though this seemed to turn into a declaration of war. "You may have the magic act, but everyone will love me the most. I wouldn't be surprised if you were ripped straight off the stage, since you suck so bad."

"Oh yeah?" Skipper challenged, although having disdain for doing another circus act, didn't like King Julien's attitude. "There's nothing cuter than four adorable penguins putting on a show. You don't stand a chance."

"Blarrhghghghhhh!" Rico attempted to add something to the chatter, but instead all that came out of him was a long exaggerated noise. At least that's what I heard, though apparently everyone else could understand him.

"You potty mouth!" King Julien placed a hand on his chest, obviously offended. "No, _your_ mother is the cow!" He cringed, followed by letting loose an uncontrollable shudder of irritation before he turned to face the main opening towards the show. "I pray the Sky Spirits do away with you four!"

King Julien turned around, making sure to make the snobbiest look towards the penguins before heading into the canvas. "Come, Mort. The fans await!"

Quickly the two disappeared, leaving me alone with the penguins. Our cue had yet to be revealed, leaving me trapped in the prison of my own consciousness.

"Kailey, is everything all right?" Private's voice filtered through my tunnel vision, bringing me up for a breath of air briefly.

"Yeah," I tried to say. Despite my attempts to be brave in the face of this situation, especially now that Private was talking to me again, this ultimately only added to my guilt. I was losing it. I didn't know how much longer I could play this game. I wasn't nearly bad guy material.

"You sure? You seem nervous," Private continued kindly. "Don't be though. We've got your back. And if it makes you feel any better, those people can't do anything to you."

"It's not the people I'm worried about," I muttered, though a sudden wave of cheers and music prohibited my comment from reaching the ears of the penguins.

"PRESENTING, THE GREAT MAGICIAN!" an announcer's voice shouted, triggering more and more applause. My heart stopped beating for a brief second, taking my breath away.

"That's it—that's our cue, boys," Skipper added. The four began walking, coaxing me along with them.

I didn't refrain whatsoever though. I was literally moving with the current right now as to not let myself get ripped to shreds. Even when I walked into the spotlight, I allowed myself to stride forward, as if that was my way of confessing all my sins. I wasn't hiding in the dark anymore. This was happening, whether I was prepared or not.

The crowd started going wild as my spotlight was met with Dave's; instantly all eyes settled upon us and us only. He seemed so calm and confident that it literally aided in my own persona. To be honest, if it wasn't for his confidence, I don't think I would have made it another step out onto that stage.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen!" Dave spoke into a headset microphone, sending his voice into the speakers set around the canvas for the crowd to hear. "I, the Great Magician, will provide a show that you won't all soon forget. With the help of my lovely assistant, I will make these four penguins… _disappear_."

I took in a deep breath, holding it briefly before I let it out. The penguins didn't look curious at all when it came to Dave. They didn't recognize him, even with his shitty ass disguise. Not even the audience could tell Dave was Dr. Brine, which was more of a surprise to me. The mustache actually worked.

The crowd started to calm down as Dave moved around on the stage, pulling a cover from an object before him to reveal one of the cages from the submarine. For some reason the reveal in itself of the cage caused me to seize up in anticipation. I waited for the penguins to say something, but to my relief, they didn't recognize the cage either. At least, that's what it seemed. I tried looking at them from the corners of my eyes, again trying to read them based on the situation in front of us.

Nothing. They had no clue.

"Now, Kailey, my dearest, would you come here with the penguins?" Dave gestured my direction and gave me a wave with his hand. I reacted as casually as I could, making sure to look at the penguins first to make sure they had listened, and then proceeded forward beside Dave, who continued speaking to the audience.

"As you can see, this is a regular cage." He waved his arm around the cage sides to show that it was stationary and not an illusion. "How can you possibly make four live penguins disappear with this, you may ask? Audience, hold tight, because this is going to be a windy ride—so windy, it might just take your breath away."

He turned then to the penguins and I, looking at me with what appeared to be an amused gaze. He was actually enjoying this. Seriously, along with how casually he carried himself, on top of being actually amused in this situation and being surrounded by enemies, I was impressed. I mean, who _wouldn't_ be impressed? If Dave wanted to, I wouldn't have any lack of faith if he'd stand up to the face of death itself and not so much as quake with fear. I don't know if he was really just a psycho or just chill.

Without speaking he opened the door for the penguins. I briefly seized up in anticipation. When the penguins did as they were coaxed to do, however, instead of relief I was surprised instead. They were literally walking into their own trap. They had absolutely no idea! This was almost too easy.

Shutting and locking the door then, Dave proceeded to speak to the audience and pick up the cloth that he had used before to cover the cage, then spread it completely over the penguin's prison.

"Now, watch and be amazed!" Dave said. I saw his smirk return as he placed a hand next to the headset on his ear, triggering a button sequence that caused the sound to dissipate from the speakers in the canvas. "Jack! Black out the lights," he said into the headset, apparently speaking to one of his henchmen.

The lights instantly went out. Along with the crowd, I couldn't help but gasp. It was almost pitch black. The daylight had completely diminished from the outside, so all that could be seen was a small ray of moonlight from above in a large circular cutout on the pavilion. _Wait, there was a cutout on the circus tent?_

I was beginning to worry, when the sound of a chopper caught my attention. Seconds went by, then all of a sudden the wind picked up in the tent itself. The chopper was right above the cutout, dropping a set of wires and hooks down towards Dave. I literally couldn't process what happened after that, but Dave hooked the wires and hooks to the cage with the penguins so quickly that before I knew it, he had grabbed hold of me once again and we were lifting into the air.

"Hahahaha! YES!" Dave exclaimed gleefully. I, on the other hand, started holding on for my life, not just because I was hanging off a helicopter again, but because now it was dark, and it looked like I could fall into what looked like an endless pit of death.

"Please take us up!" I gasped. "I can't handle this again!"

He continued laughing like a crazed madman for a few more seconds before he settled his attention on me. "Sure, sweetheart, we'll get into the chopper. I did promise, anyway." He gave off a signal towards the pilot, then slowly, but surely, we were cranked up.

"You did wonderfully out there, by the way. When I saw you walking up to me with those penguins… wow. It's like a dream come true. This is really going down!" Dave couldn't contain himself, even when the cage with the penguins was pulled on board. His smile was larger than life, just like his personality.

"You think so?" I smiled back softly and nervously. "I was trying to keep myself from collapsing from fear the entire time."

"Really?!" he gleefully responded. "I couldn't even tell!" He then picked me up and placed me into the chopper first, making sure I was safely on board. "Now then, Kailey, can you uncover the cage? I want to look those fools in the eyes and let them know exactly what's going on."

Suddenly his cheerful expression diminished to that of irritation. When he crawled further into the chopper he brought with him a wave of anger, an anger that had been suppressed for a long while and was waiting to come out, little bits at a time.

"Uhh, sure…" I hesitantly replied. I walked over towards the cage, then curled my fingers around the cover. I took a deep breath prior, then pulled.

A gasp came from Dave's throat. " _Three_ penguins!?" he yelled loudly. "Where is the fourth one?!"

I then saw that only Skipper, Kowalski, and Private were in the cage. I didn't understand how that could have happened. Didn't all of them get into the cage? I tried thinking back moments earlier to when we were putting them in there. I was of an unclear mind at the time, due to my anxiety, so maybe I wasn't paying enough attention. But then again, Dave was right beside me. Wouldn't he have noticed? I really didn't know how to explain this—it made no sense!

Just then from behind the seat, Rico pelted out like a bullet, feet first, and kicked Dave in the chest. What happened then went into slow motion, as Dave literally tripped backwards and _fell out of the helicopter_.

"HOLY SHIT!" I yelled, completely petrified. The only thing that I was able to move was my lips, which continued to spill a series of profanities. "HOLY FLIPPING FLYING MOTHER OF SHIT! CHRIST!" He just fell out of the freaking helicopter! Did he—DID HE JUST DIE? JUST LIKE THAT?

Rico looked over the side to make sure Dave was out of sight, then turned to look at me. He had a crazed look in his eye, which only grew worse once he saw how scared I was. The henchmen piloting the chopper in the front looked just as afraid as I was. It was a blessing that they weren't freaking out badly enough to lose control of the helicopter.

"That's it, Rico, now get us out of here!" Skipper called from the cage. "Cough up something to pick the lock and we'll highjack this chopper!"

Rico continued to keep a smile on even when he started hacking, though instead of something to help them get out of the cage, all that came out was an entire and perfectly unspoiled banana. Afterwards he licked his beak, thinking inquisitively to himself, and then shook his head.

"What do you mean you don't have something to get us out of here!?" Kowalski fussed. “You always have something!"

"Blarrhghghghh!" Rico responded, apparently irritated.

"It doesn't matter," Skipper said sternly, then looked over at me with a glare. "Get the keys from her."

I put my hands in the air as if surrendering. "I don't have anything!" I confessed. "I swear!" Suddenly all the negative attention was back on me, only I was caught in the act this time. In every way, form and fashion, I was now the bad guy. I was the one against them, and honestly, I didn't stand a chance. If Rico could kick Dave out of the freaking helicopter how was I supposed to stand up against him? 

The answer was simple. I WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO STAND UP AGAINST HIM. I could barely lift heavy boxes, let alone fight a crazy ass penguin while I was wearing a sparkly ass dress and heels!

"I think you're lying, Kevin!" Skipper pointed his wing at me through the cage bars. "Rico, give her a full search! Don't miss a spot!"

"DO NOT!" I yelled, eyes wide and everything. I take it back, if I said anything about being scared before, this was the most terrifying moment of my life. I was just about to be freaking full body searched by a penguin. I mean, _what the actual hell was happening here_ _?_ How was I even in this situation? HOW?

In my state of pure terror, suddenly, and without warning, one of Dave's tentacles reached from behind me and straight at Rico. It tightly squished him and then violently pounded him once against the metal ceiling. 

Everyone gasped, causing my state of panic to shift. Although it didn't knock Rico out, it did the job to disable him. He made a series of groans as Dave pulled himself onto the chopper, and slammed Rico in another, smaller cage towards the back, and locked it tightly.

"D—Dave?" I couldn't believe my eyes. He was _alive_ _?_ I felt as if I was dreaming. I watched him, still dressed in his Dr. Brine persona, casually dust himself off and turn to look back at me. Against all odds, he was standing in front of me. He had escaped death, and had in one move taken down Rico. It was like… wow. I never looked at Dave in such a positive light before now. It was like I was seeing a new side of him. A good side.

I couldn't help continue to stare at him longingly for a moment before I shook my head. I shivered, attempting to be rid of those thoughts, then proceeded back into reality to confront him about what just happened.

"Dave! What the hell? I thought you were dead! I thought you _died_ _!_ " I fussed. I still was in disbelief.

"Awww…" Dave placed a hand on his chest, smirking down at me. "You do care."

I felt my face turn red, and responded the only way I could think of at the time to avoid another awkward confrontation.

"Screw you."

. . . . . . .

"IT'S ME! I WAS THE MAGICIAN ALL ALONG!" Dave yelled, though now in the submarine his yelling was louder due to the bouncing echoes. He had ripped the fake mustache from his face, revealing himself at long last.

The penguins gasped, as if the removal of the fake mustache was like a curtain of deceit had been pulled upwards. I facepalmed myself out of pure pain for the situation. It was really hard to watch.

"He—he was like an entirely different person!" Skipper stuttered. "And how did you get out of that snow globe?! We finished you once and for all back in New York! You and your plans!"

"Oh, no, no, no!" Dave said, attempting to place as much sarcasm in his words as he could. "That was a minor set-back. Although when it came to getting out of the snow globe, I owe it to my assistant, Kailey." He gestured back to me, but quickly returned his scowl towards the penguins. "I'm returning stronger than ever, and this time, there's nothing you wretched penguins can do about it!"

"You'll never get away with this!" Private said sternly and attempted to glare at Dave. However, this only made Dave start to laugh.

"I've already gotten away with it! As a matter-of-fact, this is all going as planned! You see, capturing you first was the best thing I could have possibly done. With you captured, I can proceed with gathering resources and at the same time get North Wind's attention. In a matter of time they'll try and come to your rescue, though unaware of what they'll be facing this time."

"So what's your deal then, Dennis? Are you actually going to try and use the Medusa Serum on us again? That didn't work last time, and I don't think it will work again." Skipper was trying make Dave uncomfortable, but it wasn't working whatsoever.

"Yes! The game is still on, penguins! And you know what? This time there won't be an opportunity for a 'cure' for the monsters you will become, and there won't be a 'North Wind' after this either. I'm going to destroy North Wind, and finally turn you into hideous creatures. Permanently!"

"I've said it before, Dave, but I'll say it again. You're a monster!" Kowalski added. "What you're doing is wrong!"

"Oh, Kowalski, this again?" Dave chuckled, calmly at first, though a sinister look overcame his eyes. "I've already told you. I've been called a monster my entire life. I need you to feel exactly how I feel, and I won't stop until you become monsters too." 

He turned around then and began walking out of the room, gesturing to a group of his henchmen to stand in the room as guards, then switched his attention to me.

"Dearest, please follow me. We have things to discuss." He seemed genuinely distraught, however. Whether or not the penguins could see it, or the henchmen even, I certainly could.

I did as he requested and began following Dave out of the room and down the hallways of the submarine. For a very long time we walked like that in silence, with the clicking of our shoes against the floors the only sound that kept mild ringing in my ears at bay.

Despite my attempts of not thinking too hard about the conversation he just had with the penguins, I couldn't help but feel like I wanted to help. Obviously this guy had problems. Like any bad guy, he was troubled, and that couldn't have been more clear then right then. But my only problem was I had no idea what to say to him. Straight up talking him out of hurting his enemies was out of the question. I mean, what was one girl gonna do? I didn't think I was enough to change the tides of his plans, let alone make him feel any better. And yet, despite my negative thinking, I found myself talking anyway, trying to do something to help him out.

"You know, I am technically a psychologist," I softly laid that out there, hoping to break the ice somewhat. "It was part of the Industrial Psychology degree plan. I mean, my job is to help a company as a whole and its workers. If I'm working for you, I can help you too."

Dave stopped in his tracks, causing me to break my own pace. He kept his gaze looking forward momentarily, and then slowly his head turned my direction. I thought he was mad at first, but soon a soft smile replaced his blank scowl.

"You're very sweet," he finally replied. "And I appreciate your offer."

So, was that a _yes or no_ _?_ Like, he was so vague, I didn't know if he was willing to talk to me or not. But, despite being left in the dust when it came to my concerns, I realized that it was probably better to leave him be rather than force him to talk. All you can do is offer, really. 

At least he was kind enough to actually look back at me, smile, and thank me. Sincerely, I might add. Was that even a thing he could do? Have sincerity? I hadn't been around him long enough to know, however.

"In a few days we are due back in New York." Dave continued back into business, deterring any ideas of bringing up the conversation with the penguins from resurfacing. "I will be making my official return to the public as Dr. Brine."

"You already want North Wind to know you're back?" I asked, concerned. He literally just got the penguins; I didn't realize how ready he was to proceed.

"Yes. North Wind needs to know I am back and very much working to resume my plans." He paused, looking at me thoughtfully before continuing. "I want you to be with me when I make my announcement. It's vital that you're by my side."

"Okay…" I raised a brow, internally questioning his motives, but decided not to ask any questions.

"I need you to dress the part," Dave said. "Professionally, like you would any job. You will be representing me and all I'm about to reveal to the humans and North Wind." He smiled again, slightly amused with this idea. "Oh, and I've included a lab coat for you with my official logo. I think you've deserved that badge of honor for quite some time."

"Oh." I managed to smile, a bit taken by his words. "Thank you. I don't really know what to say." I _really_ didn't know what to say. By then I was trying to balance my thoughts of him. He was a pretty chill guy when it came to our relationship, but at the same time he did kidnap me. Still kinda a red flag.

"I've grown quite fond of you these last few hours," Dave admitted, "and with your help, I know things are going to work out just fine."

"Thanks for putting so much faith in me." I cringed, ever so mildly. I hated it when people relied on me too much, but what was I supposed to say? I could only try my best. "I'll be ready by the time we reach New York."

"I know you will," Dave stated. "Now go get some rest. My henchmen have watch over our prisoners, and it will be some time before we reach our destination." Then he turned and started walking down the hall, a few of his other henchmen meeting him once he turned the corner.

I remained standing there briefly before I headed back to my room, thinking heavily on what I just went through and what was to happen. I wasn't too keen on letting him turn penguins into a bunch of monsters, let alone to let him destroy this North Wind organization. But of course, what was I supposed to do about it?

Ugh. And to think this all started with one, tiny, single snow globe.


	6. In Too Deep

"Bruce, Will, is everything prepared for our arrival?" Dave spoke into a video call with two of his henchmen, who by the looks of it, were in a relatively new building somewhere in New York. I couldn't tell what was behind them all that much due to the direction the camera was pointing, but it looked important. I could see some contraptions such as the ones in the submarine, but overall not nearly as completed. It still looked to be a work in progress, but a progress that was very much coming along, and quickly.

A series of gobbles escaped the two little henchmen, triggering Dave to grin excitedly. His red eyes widened as he smiled, causing his irises to look like cherries. "Ah, how delightful! And the people. How does it look like outside? How many humans are showing up?"

More gurgles, though I could pinpoint a positive tone to their voices.

"Thousands?! And the media is there too?" Dave gave his large crooked-toothed grin as he shook slightly. "This is too perfect! Everything is working out just like I imagined!" He took a moment to chuckle to himself, a way, I guess, that allowed him to let out his excitement without full blown fangirling over himself. Then he started speaking again. "We'll be there soon. Make sure everything is in order before we arrive."

"So what's going on exactly?" I asked. I was already dressed and ready to leave in the 'professional' attire he had told me to wear. Honestly, it was just a dark blue button up, with a black pencil skirt, along with my more comfortable pair of heels (or pumps, whatever) like the ones my dad bought me a few years back. The only difference to my attire was the white lab coat Dave had given me with his Dr. Brine logo on it, though I decided to keep in unbuttoned for the sake of not looking like a complete nerd.

I guess it wasn't too bad. I did feel like an actual doctor, despite that I technically wasn't one. I had always planned to get a PhD, but due to my current circumstances, that wasn't happening. I was now prepared, nonetheless, to take on Dave in attempts to get information out of him.

"I have opened a company stationary in New York that will work as an extension to my labs. My return and announcement to the humans as Dr. Brine will allow me to start a chain of events to gather the resources I need to combat North Wind," Dave explained. "Even better, with the media there I can get the publicity I need, not just for the humans all over the world, but to definitely get the attention of North Wind."

"Why blow your cover?" I asked, raising a brow. "I mean, shouldn't you do a secret attack on them or something instead?"

"I would, but I have no idea where their headquarters are located, " he admitted. "Besides, it won't matter. The second they come for those penguins, or us for that matter, I'll be ready. I'm always ready."

As usual, he was confident enough. He hadn't failed since I'd been around so I didn't think he'd fail anytime soon. His confidence was all I could rely on anyway. If I didn't have that, then surely I would be dead by now, or worse, completely mad. 

Thinking about it I don't even know how I _wasn't_ going crazy by then. Wait—as a matter of fact, how was I even going about my daily routine not freaked out about all this? I mean, I still was sort of freaked out but it had become such a normal thing. What even was the proper definition of normal anyway? Was there even such a thing as 'normality'? Now I'm going too philosophical on this bullshit, maybe I should stop thinking too hard.

"Okay, so what am I supposed to do?" I asked. I seriously wasn't prepared to go on another one of his little adventures without knowing what was going to happen. That trippy circus, and watching him get kicked out of a helicopter was difficult enough.

"I just need you by my side when I make my speech to the humans." Dave grinned my way, his eyes half open, giving a sort of mischievous vibe to himself.

For some reason this caused me to shiver as a quick dose of cold adrenaline went through me. Not expecting that reaction from myself, I felt my cheeks flush, though soon my consciousness of looking embarrassed quickly changed to that of irritation.

Glaring at him suspiciously in return, I remained silent. He wasn't going to talk to me again about what he had in mind. He never talked to me about what he had in mind, unless it was vital for him to do so. Even the night we brought the penguins back to the submarine, and he was acting all disappointed and puffy, he wouldn't let me in. Yet I was expected to do everything he said.

Ugh, this was my fault anyway. I did choose to work for him rather than get my mind erased so I had to live with that choice. I just hope it wasn't the wrong one.

"Fine," I sneered. "Don't tell me anything." I turned around and started walking out of the room, tightly digging my fingers into my palms as I made fists to further deter my irritation. "I'll wait for you on the docks."

"Ah, great idea!" Dave stated as I walked. "Some of my henchmen will have a limo waiting outside. Go ahead and take a seat; I'll be there shortly."

A limo? Was he serious? Whatever. As long as I was actually going to sit somewhere comfortable I didn't care. Sometimes I just really thought he was overdoing it. Still, nothing could come close to the fiasco with the helicopter like last time. I swear nothing up until that point was nearly as bad as the helicopter incident.

Soon, I had already went out the hatch and was heading towards the main opening, not his crazy elevator opening he apparently liked to jump out of like a freaking show off. Unlike him I still enjoyed using doors correctly.

A couple octopuses saw me and started following like a bunch of baby ducks. I tried to shrug it off like normal, but with them following me out the main opening to the outside like that was a little nerve-wracking. I wasn't sure if they were just following me to keep an eye on me or I was leading them out.

Thankfully, before I felt the need to turn around and give them an awkward stare, I heard a jingle of some keys. Afterwards, one of them quickly started walking ahead to a limo that had been parked close by, and then placed on a driver's hat once he approached it.

"No offense, but how do you guys know how to drive?" I asked, though completely honestly and out of pure concern. The one who had asserted his role as the driver looked back at me; his eyes narrowed mildly to show that he disliked my lack of confidence in him.

In response I raised my hands, attempting to give him a casual smile to show I wasn't joking. "Look, I'm just genuinely not used to this. It's not every day a person finds out animals can do things people can do."

The octopus continued staring for a few more seconds, then gurgled something at me. His garbles lasted for a few moments longer than I expected; apparently this was his attempt to have a full blown conversation with me. The other octopuses nodded in agreement with him, again, leaving me out of the conversation. I think they still weren't used to me either, and definitely not used to the language barrier.

"Yeeeah," I said, through clenched teeth. "Sorry, I literally got none of that."

The driver facepalmed himself and shook his head, then proceeded to open the limo doors. Two other octopuses got into the limo, and then waited for me to get in. Alas, despite how I said how I was getting used to all this, I still wasn't _completely_ used to it. Don't laugh, reader; I'd like to see you try to willingly get into a strange limousine with a bunch of freaking octopuses. While one was driving, I'd like to emphasize.

If walking with the octopus henchmen and into the car wasn't awkward enough, we now had to sit there together as we waited for Dave. Very mildly in the speakers I could hear the _Safety Dance_ being played again.

 _Shit, how many times are they actually going to keep this on repeat, seriously_?

Luckily we didn't have to sit there for long. After a few minutes, Dave, fully dressed back as Dr. Brine, jumped into the limo, signaling to the driver to begin heading towards the conference. "Step on it! My legion of fans await!" he exhaled. I don't think Dave's large grin ever came off of his face the entire morning prior to this event.

The driver acknowledged Dave and started driving, though despite that we were moving now I still felt really weird sitting in the limo. I placed a hand on my face, attempting to block out Dave and his henchmen from the corners of my gaze to prevent further embarrassment and slight disappointment. 

Yes, I was a little aggravated with Dave; I have to be honest about that. I hated it that he had everything kept secret within himself and wouldn't tell me a damn thing. I wasn't letting that fact out of my mind.

"What's wrong, dearest? You look uncomfortable." After a few minutes of giddily squeeing to himself he finally noticed me. I tried to not look mad, but regardless, he still noticed something was off.

"Well, I just don't know exactly what I'm doing," I admitted, placing my hand down onto my lap. "You always throw me out there as if I'm 100% trained in whatever chaos I'm about to help you instill for your revenge, or whatever."

"Oh, Kailey… you don't understand. It's extremely difficult for me to keep you updated, let alone any of my henchmen updated with my plans in entirety." He sighed, thinking deeply. "I mean, once I get a full plan set out and green lit, I suddenly have ten more ideas that take its place! Besides, if I straight up told you what I had planned you probably wouldn't like it."

I gave him a long, hard stare before I responded. He wasn't lying though; from what he's made me do so far I've been reluctant to follow through with anything. Maybe it was for the better for me not to know what was about to happen anyway. I have no idea, really.

"Fine. I understand," I said sarcastically, crossing my arms tightly over myself again as a way to show I was still mad. "Just keep everything to yourself. I don't mind at all. I'm only your assistant, after all."

"I'm so glad you understand!" Dave became chipper again, completely missing that I was still mad.

Eh, whatever. Not like it would have mattered either way. To be honest I don't think he'd completely notice if I was angry unless I decided to punch him in the face or something.

Ever so steadily, like the sound of waves stirring against a beach, I heard a crowd outside the vehicle. It was distant at first, but then grew, suddenly drawing my eyes from the floor and out the window. 

There, among a decently large plot of land, a new building stood. It looked to be about only thirty stories tall, though its actual length and square footage on the ground made up for its smaller height in comparison to the other buildings in the distance. Above the large entryway to the building I saw Dave's insignia, more specifically Dr. Brine's, and below the insignia itself read the words 'Octo Corp'.

"Seriously?" I said. " _Octo Corp_? You couldn't have come up with anything better than Octo Corp?"

"I gotta stick to my roots, sweetheart," Dave said, grinning at me only momentarily before he let his eyes stay glued to his building, along with the crowd outside. I could see then, as I followed his gaze, that a small stage had been set up before the building, curtains and everything, with a big red ribbon before the headquarters itself. Seriously, Dave was going all out for this, per the norm.

The limo stopped up close to the stage area, where the crowd was blocked off by rope and some police officers. The instant our doors opened, however, was when the rush of screams and cheers became the loudest.

"Dr. Brine is back! YEAH!" a guy in the audience yelled, triggering more woos and ohs to fill my ears. Dave seemed to thoroughly enjoy this attention; he waved at the audience, giving them his larger–than–life smile as he even did a few twirls for them. His exaggerated intro only caused more hollers and cheers.

At least the attention was diverted off of me. 

Actually, I _thought_ the attention was off of me until I heard a familiar voice call out from the audience.

" _Kailey!? Kailey, bloody hell is that you?!_ _"_

Shit. Somebody recognized me. Dammit! I thought I was going to go about this without anyone noticing me, but that had gone down the drain quickly. I turned towards the audience then, scanning over the crowd of faces until one struck me as familiar. It took me a moment, but that's when I noticed it was my friend and former classmate, Steven, from the university.

"Kailey! Kailey, it's me! Steven Wheatfield! Oi, we had a few pre-req classes together! I was the transfer student from Britain! Your brother was in the robotics club with me, remember?"

I stood there like a deer caught in headlights as he hung over the rope to look at me. I hesitated, only for a second as I made sure Dave was preoccupied, then walked over towards him. Steven met me with a hug, then proceeded to freak out.

"Kailey, I heard you disappeared! This is where you've been? With Dr. Octavius Brine? _The_ Dr. Octavius Brine?!"

"Uh, yeah…" I stuttered. I wasn't sure how to respond. This could be an opportunity to tell him about my conundrum. I had been kidnapped by Dave, who was in fact a large purple octopus, but how would that come across to Steven? Would he even believe me? And how was I supposed to tell him now, surrounded by thousands of people? "It's a really long story…" I managed to get out before Steven's eyes diverted behind me. He seemed to melt like a fangirl.

"Who is this?" Dave asked as he came up behind me, attempting to act professionally but I could see traces of another emotion in his eyes.

"Uhhh…" I wanted to answer, but Steven shoved me out of the way and extended his hand out to Dave.

"I'm Steven Wheatfield! It's a pleasure—NO, an HONOR to meet you, Doctor." Steven was fangirling hard. "I've been following your studies for months now and you have been such a huge inspiration to me as an aspiring scientist and engineer. Also, the way you brought back those penguins, wow! I mean, they looked kinda weird at first, but then everything was okay and OH MY GOD!"

"That's nice," Dave responded, playing flattered for Steven. Normally I would have assumed Dave would have absolutely adored this kind of treatment, but he actually seemed a little short with Steven. I don't know if it was because of how he looked and must have felt funny upon approaching Steven while he was talking to me, or when Steven mentioned the penguins.

"Kailey, we need to get on the stage," Dave said straightforwardly, then grabbed my arm and started walking me away from the ropes to behind the staircase area behind the curtains.

I felt like there was more I could have told Steven, but due to the situation, that was difficult. Now that Steven knew where I was though, he was bound to tell my family. And if my family didn't hear it from Steven, they'd hear it from the media that was among the audience. _Yikes_.

The instant Dave and I walked from behind the curtains and in front of the crowd I met another blast of applause. It was so loud and unexpected that I felt my heart flutter. Nervous, I let Dave situate me on the stage directly beside him at the microphone, all the while trying to keep my composure and keep from shaking like a leaf.

The crowd continued to cheer excitedly, even after I was situated. This caused Dave to smile and wave, in addition adding some weird dance movies to the routine that only made the crowd freak out even more. Watching him 'dance' might as well have been a huge giveaway that he wasn't human; _obviously an octopus_. Then again I had escaped the allegory of the cave and knew better than these other people. They literally had no idea who Dr. Brine was. Not even Steven. I had to face that I was the only one who knew.

"Ladies and gentleman!" Dave announced into the microphone, finally stopping his dance to speak. "I am so happy to see I have so much support in my new endeavors. Truly, if it wasn't for you being the loyal individuals you are, I wouldn't be the successful geneticist I am today." He allowed for a series of more cheers, smiling proudly at his 'legion of fans', before he continued speaking. "As you all know, I have taken a brief hiatus since I brought back your _precious_ penguins. "

His eye twitched momentarily upon the mention of the penguins, also his voice hissed for a brief moment. However, nobody saw that but me. He continued speaking, his persona as true and sincere in his position as ever. He was literally, physically and all, the biggest lie I think humanity had ever fallen for. It was strangely hilarious. I almost felt privileged to be able to know who he really was.

"Despite my absence, I will make up for that missed time. Starting today, I will be returning full-time to my studies. I have decided to celebrate my return by announcing my new company, Octo Corp!"

The crowd went wild with Dave's announcement. It didn't take much for them to start flipping out anyway. I mean, nerds in general freaked out over everything when it came to science or freaking appearances of Stan Lee so it's not like this should have been a huge surprise to me. 

I couldn't help but chuckle though, even as I stood in front of thousands of people who were possibly staring at me. It felt nice knowing things they didn't, and actually seeing them for the doofuses they were.

God, what am I _thinking_? That sounds like something a bad guy would say. STOP, KAILEY STOP.

"I will take questions before we officially open the building," Dave stated, looking towards the audience intently. It didn't take but a second of waiting for a dozen hands, mostly from the media in the front, to rise up and wiggle to get his attention.

"Dr. Brine! What will be the main function of your facility here in New York?" one lady in the front asked. A few flashes from cameras went off as Dave thought of what to say.

"Other than its use for helping me with my studies, I will be working on projects specifically aimed towards you all!" Dave seemed to be extremely sly when it came to giving just enough information to the people without them getting completely suspicious. I knew he was going to mess with the penguins but I didn't know it was aimed at the humans too. 

It must have to do with him wanting the penguins to be treated like 'monsters', or whatever. That entire conversation was another thing that I really wanted to talk about with him, but being left in the dark about it, there wasn't much I could pinpoint at the time.

"Dr. Brine, with your history with the missing penguins, do you plan to donate to the zoos in their honor?" another reporter cried out to him, causing Dave's brows to flatten. He really hated when people mentioned penguins, let alone while asking him to donate money _in their honor_.

"I will be paying visits to the zoos, yes," Dave answered. Again, he was telling only half the truth and avoided answering the question as a whole. I could tell this by how he was still trying to shake off a little bit of irritation from the question that was thrown at him.

"Dr. Brine, what about this young woman standing next to you? Is she an employee to your new company?"

Shit, somebody had to ask about me. _Seriously_?

"Yes," Dave answered, resuming his grin. He seemed to collect himself then, taking the time to speak more seriously yet happily to the audience. His transition of emotion was a little unusual, but I didn't think of it much at the time. "To be specific, this is my assistant, Kailey. I have also chosen her to run pledge drives throughout the country for my company. She is given all the rights to represent me, as she is my fiancée."

_What the ever living actual shit flying mother of turtles and burnt waffles did he just freaking say?_

If question marks and puffs of smoke could appear at the top of my head then that's what would have happened. Everything from my forehead to the soles of my feet went stiff like a plank, suddenly then a wave of stupid ass ridiculous ' _awwws_ ' hitting my direction like pellets of hail plummeting on an unsoiled car.

"Wait a second…" I tried to speak, but being hit with that random statement caught me so off guard that I wasn't even able to talk properly. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, because my voice disappeared instantly into the annoying sounds the audience was making.

"This is quite a surprise, Dr. Brine!" the reporter from below said happily. One guy behind her was actually crying.

"Yes, it is a surprise… very much so to me even," Dave started again. "I never thought I would have considered getting married before, seeing as how I've been so busy with my work, but you know how love is."

I felt my teeth start to grind together as embarrassment slowly but steadily began to be replaced by pure rage. I could only stand there, attempting to keep composure, as I listened to Dave continue to talk bullshit to the audience.

"But despite how quickly it happened, being with her has been the best choice of my life. With her help this company will be a huge success!"

The crowd erupted into cheers, this happy display serving as a complete opposite to how purely and absolutely pissed I was. I was clenching my fists so hard that my nails started to dig into my palms, and my veins started to pop from my hands. I could be slapped by a ten foot pole and I wouldn't be able to feel the pain.

"Now, I present you people with the official opening of Octo Corp!" Dave moved the attention from me to the building, where he took a pair of fancy scissors from the stand in front of him and walked towards the ribbons stationed in front of the building, snipping the red ribbon to spark the start of more applause.

It was only then that my anger was reaching such a climax that sound itself was literally nonexistent to my psyche. I didn't know how much time passed, but like the receding and returning of waves, sound returned only when Dave came back beside me, taking my arm to get my attention.

"Kailey, I'm letting people into the building. We should go down there. There's something I need to show you anyway," he said, still giving me that overly confident smirk of his and remaining constantly unaware of just how mad I was.

I only followed him off the stage, without so much as speaking back to him. With my sense of sound having returned suddenly, music began to play, mixing in with the cheers and cries of the people heading into the building. A filter seemed to go through my ears, however, due to my out of balance mental state; the music was the most emphasized with the shitty music sending the lyrics "FIRE IT UP THAT LOUD, ANOTHER ROUND OF SHOTS, TURN DOWN FOR WHAT" into my eardrums like dying unicorns. I kept my eye on Dave's head, picturing a target on his fake ass red wig. 

Once we were hidden behind the back curtains, where people couldn't see us, I took all my pent-up fury that had built in my body into my right palm, then collectively punched him in the face.

"THIS WAS NOT WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR!" I yelled. "Your _fiancée_? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING?"

Dave seemed to recover quickly from the punch, turning around and fixing his glasses on his face as if the punch hadn't been too painful. Despite this, he still looked very shocked.

Placing a hand on his cheek he stared at me for a moment, his mouth dropping open like a kid when they were still processing the fact they had just been spanked. "What do you _mean_?" he asked, as if surprised. "You did sign up for this! You're my assistant, and that means doing what you can to help me take revenge on my enemies!"

"And how does posing as your freaking fiancée play into that? What gave you that idea?"

"You gave me the idea, actually with your blog when you brought up Octodad. It's an extremely good cover. And besides, people love that sort of thing! If they see me as having a future wife, they'll sympathize with me more. Besides, you should be… I don't know, _flattered_! I am the most renowned geneticist in the world after all!"

This only made me angrier. I ran up to him with the intent of punching him again, but instead of my fist landing into his face he caught it in one of his hands, holding it softly as if to counter my rage. Seeing him catch my punch like that though, turned the tides and caught _me_ by surprise. I looked from my fist then to him for a moment.

" _Br—bro_ …" I stuttered. This briefly delivered me from my chaotic mindset. However, after a few seconds of him awkwardly holding my palm, my eyes narrowed, and anger resumed within me like the goddess of freaking chaos herself had embodied me. I snatched my hand from him, then came up at him fast, grabbed both sides of his lab coat, and brought him down to my level. He was significantly taller than I was, but despite this I wouldn't let up in my attempts to intimidate him.

"Listen here, Buster, you wanna play this game? Fine,” I began. “Do it. Use me like some sort of pawn to your weird revenge bullshit. But look me in the eye, Dave. You better start filling me in on details and stop leaving me out of things. If you have the misfortune of keeping information from me in the future, I will not hesitate to shove your entire ass back into an oversized snow globe and keep you as my pet. Got it?"

He continued to look at me with his mouth half open, shocked and motionless. In his mute state, I shoved him away from me and started walking towards the building. I made sure to keep my nose pointed in the air to look as snobby as I possibly could, even when people continued to shoot more waves of cutesy _awws_ my direction.

. . . . . . .

Almost instantly I had become some sort of celebrity. As I stood there among the hundreds of people gathered in the building, I was constantly bombarded by flashing lights from cameras. It got even worse when Dave had caught up with me, and we stood there together being seen as a freaking couple while folks walked up asking for more personal pictures with us. 

Honestly to God Almighty, I now knew how celebrities must have felt when they were being sent flashes of light at their face constantly and being sent nerdy ass responses from dorks geeking out in the background, but not having the courage to actually approach them. The people that did attempt to approach us, other than the folks asking for pictures, started spewing random questions, to which I let Dave answer since at that time I was still so beyond pissed I couldn't even function properly.

At first I didn't even know why we were letting civilians into the building, but I figured it was all for Dave's continued cover as Dr. Brine. From what I could gather, this was only necessary for the fact of gaining publicity, continuing to gain trust from the people, and further instill the lie that Dave was actually a person and totally not a giant purple octopus.

"Kailey! Kailey, oh my GOD!" It was Steven again. I could see him coming into the building finally, waving his hands in the air to get my attention like the true crazed fangirl he was. His excitement to see me was leveled up ten times now that he heard Dave's 'news' about me. I was dreading every leaping footstep Steven made to get to me.

"KAILEY!" he gasped, attempting to catch his breath. He settled his glasses on his face and moved strands of his blonde hair from his forehead in attempts to gather himself before he continued. "Kailey, congratulations. I mean, WOW! I was wondering why you had disappeared and everything, but it's all starting to make sense now!"

"Yay. Terrific," I responded with sarcasm. Dave remained silent beside me, keeping his attention on me as he continued to give away gestures to other passing fans.

"I just called your brother, and told him to watch the news. Your family has been so worried about you but now they know where you are and that you're okay. Not to mention you're now the fiancée of the most renowned geneticist in all the world!" He actually started tearing up.

"Please tell me you didn't," I said, attempting to smile to keep my persona up but this coming out as a cringe instead.

 _He told my freaking family a_ _bout this?_ Why, Steven, why?! Why would you do this to me? It's bad enough that these strangers think I'm 'Dr. Brine's' freaking fiancée, now my damned parents have to know? This day was getting worse by the second. I literally wished I would have just jumped out of the helicopter when I was first kidnapped. Hell, being brainwashed seemed to have been the better decision!

"No, I did tell them!" Steven reinforced. "Ah, I'm just so glad to know you're safe and sound." He looked up towards Dave, who had now put his full attention on our conversation. It was from his obvious staring that Steven attempted to break the ice by extending his palm out again for another handshake. "It's really an honor to meet you, Dr. Brine, truly it is. And to know you're taking care of my friend is beyond amazing as well. Congratulations to you both!"

"Thank you," Dave said, smiling sincerely. I felt like I wanted to dissipate like a freaking evaporating puddle. "Now, Steven, if you don't mind I need to take Kailey to show her around the facility."

"Oh, yes, sorry! Thanks again!" Steven cheerfully departed then and joined the civilians looking at some of the more 'normal' contraptions attached to the walls of the large room we were in. From there, Dave grabbed my hand and escorted me out of the room. We disappeared into an elevator and flew up a couple stories to a different part of the facility. It took a while, but once we reached our destination we were immediately greeted by the two octopuses from the cam call earlier that morning.

"Emma, what's on my schedule?" Dave asked immediately upon walking in. The pink octopus started a series of gurgles at Dave while bringing up a notepad. Dave smiled at the list, apparently pleased with whatever his henchmen had prepared for him. "Ah, terrific!" he exalted. His somewhat serious attitude from before had again transformed into utter happiness.

"What's going on now?" I asked, crossing my arms around me. It took a moment but he did answer me, however it was in a way that completely seemed to deter him from bringing up my feelings on the situation and what he had put me through.

"Well, from my pledge drives set across the states, we will be attending scheduled events to pull in more money for our cause." He was getting back into business, as usual. "With more money coming in we can start new projects to combat North Wind. I've already got two projects in the works. One is actually almost completed; however it's in the back garages so it remains out of sight while the civilians are here. Our first pledge drive, which you'll be helping me run, is actually in Houston. We will be paying a visit to the zoo as well to kidnap more penguins…"

"Ugh!" I threw my hands in the air. Hearing about kidnapping more penguins threw me off the edge. I don't know why I couldn't contain myself then, but for some reason I had had it. "More of this? And you have the nerve to take me back to my home city?!" 

I could only imagine the people that knew me and what their reactions would be. Whether it was positive or negative, I didn't want this kind of attention. 

"To be honest, I actually don't care right now. I just want to go lay down." I then turned around, letting go of my attempts to dive right back into the action and into another one of Dave's crazy ass plans, and left back down the elevator. 

I think I deserved a very long nap after the gigantic fiasco that had unfolded today. With this sort of pattern going on, I knew that this was just another low point in Dave's waves of evil schemes, so another weird adventure was bound to happen once we headed back to Houston.


	7. Sincerest Apologies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The following chapter will be in Dave's POV. I will occasionally dedicate a chapter to Dave telling some of his side of the story, so when I do, I will indicate so by telling you guys at the start of the chapter. Otherwise the story will be back to Kailey's POV.

**Dave**

Boy, she was mad. _Really_ mad. I knew Kailey would be angry with me to a certain degree, but I wasn't expecting that. I mean, was I really that bad? What was I supposed to say, _sorry I'm not better looking_ _?_

She was missing the key component to how this revenge thing works! And, might I add, how to properly manipulate the human civilians in a way that will not only bring in more money for our cause, and my ultimate revenge, but to further establish myself as a real and believable scientist and fellow human being. Keeping up a persona as a human is harder than it looks, you know! It's not like I just popped out of my last tank automatically known as Dr. Octavius Brine at whatever zoo prison I was in while watching more penguins get all the love and attention THEY ABSOLUTELY DO NOT DESERVE.

Regardless of what I thought though, or what Kailey thought for that matter, I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. It had been a good twelve hours and she had not so much as peeked out of her room. I even tried offering her dinner that night when she stormed away back to her quarters in the submarine, but I was only met with a bunch of hurtful remarks. She didn't say anything particularly hurtful to me, but still.

Kailey ignoring me like this… _r_ _eall_ _y hurts_ _._ I really thought I was over this with humans and constantly wanting their attention, but with her it was just… I don't know, different. I wanted her to like me. She was the only other person I knew, human or animal, that I could be around.

I found myself contemplating on what to do. I was back in the command bay, watching my henchmen work the controls as we started off back towards the Gulf of Mexico, our new destination being the place all this started: Houston. I needed everyone to be ready, and of course, that included Kailey. But with her being mad like this, my plans for when we actually got to Houston would have to be put on hold. 

I couldn't do this without her now. She was far too intertwined with my plans that attempting to go about them without her would be extremely difficult. I had to think of a way to get her to forgive me, but so far any ideas were put on a stand still.

"Chris, Martin, I'm at odds ends here," I stated aloud as I tried to wrap my mind around this. My henchmen looked my way, but they didn't have anything to say. If I couldn't think of a way to make Kailey happy again, then I knew for certain they couldn't.

After a few moments of silence, Chris pointed up towards the computer screen, as if in a matter–of–fact sort of way. It took only a brief moment before I caught what he was trying to gesture.

"Oh, terrific idea!" I let out. "Of course! Just Google it! Why didn't I think of that earlier? Kailey tells me to Google things all the time anyway, so I'm sure this shouldn't be any different."

I then turned my attention to the computer, placed on my pair of black–rimmed glasses, and started up the internet. Immediately I was brought to the Google main screen, where I was then asked what I wanted to search for. 

"All right," I muttered aloud as I started typing, " _How to get a girl to forgive you_ _…_ " Once that was in the search bar, I pressed 'enter'. Instantly I was fed a bunch of results. At the top of these listed was a site called 'WikiHow'. I figured the first result is the best result for this kind of thing so I clicked on the site. 

At that point Chris and Martin were standing behind me, apparently just as curious as I was about this.

"Do I just scroll down the list, or...?" I asked out of habit. I didn't Google things often so I wanted to make sure. Martin nodded to acknowledge what I had asked, and I proceeded to scroll while reading the list.

" _Give her a sincere apology_." I read it aloud, attempting to comprehend what it was asking me. Did I even apologize to her? I mean, I don't think so, but I didn't see a reason why I had to apologize anyway. She signed up for this, after all. It's not like I didn't already warn her that this was a plot of revenge in the first place, and sometimes we have to step out of our comfort zones. And if that meant being my fiancée, then... well, I don't know, that was just how it was going to be.

"Is this WikiHow serious, I'm supposed to apologize? I didn't do anything wrong!" I proceeded to read anyway. It stated something about giving her the most sincere apology you could muster up, and writing a letter too. 

UGH, DAMN YOU WIKIHOW, YOU'RE ASKING TOO MUCH OF ME! A letter? Seriously? I had so much on my mind, I didn't know if I could take more time out of my busy revenge schedule to writer her a letter. Reading this on its own was a waste of time!

I continued to scroll onto the next steps then. It simply told me that I needed to take responsibility for whatever I did.

Okay, wow, WikiHow, what are you telling me? Of course I take responsibility of my actions, I _planned_ that announcement! Kailey just took it worse than I had anticipated.

The next step was being honest. Well, that was definitely something I needed to work on, I get that. I never told her blunt lies, only partial truths, but once I thought of that fact WikiHow even stated that partial truths weren't allowed. I had to tell her everything. I had to be honest.

I found myself eyeing Chris and Martin in order to gather their thoughts on all this. Both of them seemed unmoved by what they were reading, so I suppose they didn't exactly feel how I was feeling. _What am I saying, of course they didn't know how I was feeling. They weren't the genius masterminds with all the plans, I was_ _._

"What do you think, gentlemen? Is being honest okay to be at this point with her?" I asked, genuinely concerned. I didn't even tell them, my own henchmen, about everything, so this could stir up some problems. 

Chris immediately nodded his head with positive agreement while Martin sighed, apparently irritated, but ended up nodding anyway. 

"All right, I guess I'll have to be more honest," I said again out loud, as if to coach myself into that fact. She did relentlessly and intimidatingly tell me I had to be honest with her anyway, so I guess that's what she wanted after all.

Ugh. Moving along.

At that point I figured I had most of it down. Patience, honesty, and whatnot seemed like something I was completely capable of. And from her blog I had everything I needed research-wise to know what she liked or enjoyed, so I could use that to my advantage.

"So, I guess I should write a letter then? And maybe work on her gift?" I chattered out loud in hopes my henchmen would have something to say, but they remained quiet. I decided then that it was in my best interest to go back into her blog and decide what I should get her as a present.

"Okay, let's see… she likes chocolate. That's pretty easy. A box of chocolates could be something? But that's too cliché; I can do better than that." I pondered for a second, then continued reading out loud. "She likes to cosplay. Cosplay? What does that even mean? What is cosplay?"

I minimized her blog and returned to Google, where I would put in my new search. After that, images of people dressed up in weird costumes popped up, mostly of human girls dressed as superheroes or whatnot. Attempting to comprehend this new definition of 'cosplay', I found myself raising a brow in a questionable manner.

"So… she likes to dress up as different people?" I narrowed my eyes at the screen. "How is that any different than what I do!? She thinks I'm this gigantic liar for dressing up as Dr. Brine, but I'm literally doing the same thing she likes to do!"

Chris patted my back again, causing me to come out of my train of thought.

"Oh, whatever. Hey, that's just something we have in common then. She can't use the whole lying to people against me anymore, now can she?” I said aloud.

I lowered Google once again and brought her blog back up to continue reading. "All right, she likes cats." I frowned after I read that aloud. For some reason that just immensely exasperated me every time I read it.

"Hey!" I gasped out loud, an idea coming to mind. "You know, that's a thought. I could use my Medusa Serum on a cat and give it to her as a present." I'm pretty sure both Chris and Martin tried telling me something, but I didn't pay much attention to their random urgency. That sounded like a brilliant idea to me Like, wow, why didn't I think of that sooner? Ah, being brilliant really comes with its perks.

"Okay, now that I know what she likes I need to get started on that letter." Even after I announced what I was going to do I remained standing there, staring at the computer screen. Thinking about it now, I'm pretty sure I was just trying to avoid it all together, but I had to get Kailey to forgive me one way or another, so I had to push myself to do it.

"Chris, pen this down for me will you?" I ordered. I waited for Chris to find a notepad and pen to write with, then after he seemed ready I started telling him what to put down.

" _Dearest Kailey, I am so very sorry for what happened the other day during the conference. Love, Dave._ "

I was met with silence from both of my henchmen before a smack from Martin hitting his forehead caused me to look their way.

"What?" I asked. "I wrote a letter of sincere apology. What else am I supposed to tell her?"

Martin shook his head as he kept an arm on his face, allowing Chris then to take the wheel and start writing something else down. I watched him scribble on the notepad, intently for some time, before he turned the page over to where I could see it. I adjusted my glasses in front of my face as I read it aloud.

" _Dearest Kailey, I am so very sorry for what happened the other day during the conference. I wasn't thinking when I put you out there in what must have been an extremely difficult situation. From henceforth I shall keep you updated on all my plans, and allow you a say so in what is to come. It is important that we move past this and start working together as to not fall behind schedule. If there is anything I can do to for you, I am always available. With greatest sincerity, Dave._ "

I looked at Chris for a moment, considering what was written down on the page. Promising all that would be extremely difficult, but I knew eventually I would have to follow through with that kind of true honesty anyway. 

"Fine. This will work," I stated aloud. "Okay… here I go. Here goes nothing."

I stood up with the letter in my grasp and started walking out of the command bay towards Kailey's quarters. Chris and Martin followed me, which I couldn't blame them, and we kept silent the entire way before I approached Kailey's door. I took a deep breath, swallowed, and straightened up before I knocked on the door and spoke.

"Kailey. It's me," I said as calmly as I could.

"Go away!" she yelled.

"Look, I know you're not going to talk to me. So I brought you a letter instead." I took the letter and pushed it under the door. Afterwards, I listened as she got up and walked over to pick it up, then the sound of the paper unfolding caught my attention. It was quiet for a few seconds on her end before silence was violently ripped in half.

"I KNOW YOU DIDN'T WRITE THIS, DAVE!" she yelled. Suddenly I heard the letter start crumpling up, then like dust the letter poofed out from under the door as she pushed all its shredded contents back at me. I remained there, stunned, looking back and forth between my two henchmen for support before I started trying to talk to her again.

"Kailey, look, I'm really sorry! I'm not very good at this kind of thing."

"There wouldn't be a reason for you to be sorry if you wouldn't have lied in the first place!"

"I can't stress how important it is that you come out of your room. It's been way too long. I know the whole marrying me thing was weird and kinda out of the blue, but I have to keep up a persona here!"

"Get lost, you turd!"

I gasped. "Turd? I am no such thing!" I felt a scowl overcome my expression as all my arms bundled up into fists. "I AM NOT A TURD!"

"Yeah you are! A big, slimy, T. U. R. D. TURD!"

"GAHHHH!" I slammed an arm on the metal floors, causing a smashing echo to bounce throughout the hall. My sudden expression of anger caused my two henchmen to jump in front of me and wave their arms my direction to get me to stop. Their urgency finally managed to get me to breathe and gather myself. After settling for a few seconds I calmly tried to reproach the situation.

"It would be greatly appreciated," I managed to get through my teeth, "if you came out of your room."

"No!"

"GRAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I slammed three arms in a row on the floor, causing a domino sound effect to fill the halls. My henchmen jumped back, eyes wide, as they could only watch me storm off towards the main labs.

I wasn't giving up though. I _never_ give up.


	8. Forgiveness and Cooperation

_Was this real life?_

I can't fathom how many times I said that to myself, let alone thought those same four words over and over again, in different patterns, tenses, and waves, as if suddenly trying to properly structure a sentence had become a foreign concept to me. It also didn't help that I was isolating myself, but the second I thought of coming out of the room I was again met with memories of what happened. Then that cycle repeated, where I was questioning reality like some freaking philosopher that I used to make fun of in class who talked about whether a freaking table was real or not. _What is the real table? How can I know if the table is real or not if I cannot rely on my own senses to tell me otherwise?_ The same questions I would laugh my ass off about had now become legit questions. Shit, those old guys in the text books were really onto something! What the actual hell?!

I didn't recall when Dave had last visited me, with his fake letter of apology that obviously one of his henchmen wrote. I mean, what does he take me for? A sap? I'm not falling for that shit. Like, if he wanted to apologize to me correctly he needed to understand my situation. Clearly though, he lacked empathy big time, and didn't care what he put me through. That was obvious by the fact that he literally told me nothing about what I was about to do. If I'm playing assistant for him he needs to tell me things so I can help him properly. It's not like I'm not _willing_ to help him, that's not it at all. But… UGH, WHAT AM I SAYING? This is ridiculous. He put me in a situation where my family, hell, the entire world has me on a silver platter ready to devour, and he doesn't care.

All he cares about is revenge! _GRR, MY NAME'S DAVE AND I HATE PENGUINS SO I NEED TO EXACT REVENGE ON THEM FOR ALL TIME! ALSO NORTH WIND SUCKS!_ I still don't know anything about this North Wind. Seriously, how much worse can this all possibly get?

From the depths of my intense thought processes, I suddenly heard a loud, strange sounding _boom._ A green light flashed from under my door, causing me to look up from my trance, finally breaking out of whatever rut I had gotten myself into. The loud sound and green flash happened so quickly that I blinked a few times, attempting to comprehend whether or not what I heard, and saw was real or not. It was then that curiosity got the better of me, and I sat up to head towards the door.

Firstly, I looked out the little window slot at the highpoint of the door, placing myself on my tiptoes to get a better look at the hallway. When I couldn't make out anything suspicious from that, I finally opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

"Dave, is that you?" I asked, though was met with no answer. I could faintly hear distant laughter, then afterwards an exclamation of some sort, though I couldn't make out what was being said. I figured then that Dave was just doing something else weird, per the norm, so I headed back into my room, shutting the door tight behind me.

I managed to sit back down and place a hand on my head before I heard the sound of someone making their way down the hall. It was obviously Dave, because I heard him chuckling excitedly as he got closer, and closer to where I was. Ultimately, and unavoidably, he knocked on my door, causing my teeth to grind together as I was prepared for another confrontation with him.

"Dave, not now!" I yelled.

"Look, you need to come outside. I have something for you!"

"I don't care what it is, just leave me alone!"

"Are you sure? I mean, it's really cool."

I would have answered him with another loud yell, but I was cut short when I heard the coo of a tiny _meow._ My eyes shot open as my heart seemed to miss a beat. The sound of a cat seemed to make me melt, bringing me out again from my plans on staying angry with Dave. The call to open the door in response to a cat was almost too hard to ignore. Growing up with cats all my life, and taking care of some of them since before their eyes opened, brought out some motherly instinct in me that was too hard to ignore anymore. I sat up, turned around slowly, and I walked over and opened the door.

The first thing I saw was Dave, grinning largely down at me with his crooked teeth. One of his tentacles was hiding the cat behind him, his attempts to make this a surprise I suppose.

"I brought you something," Dave said, his voice still chipper and his expression filled with excitement. "I made it especially for you."

"Made it?" I asked, raising a brow. That caused a red flag to instantaneously fly. Something was severely off about this. "How would you _make_ me a cat?" I narrowed my gaze at him, clearly showing my caution in this.

"Cat? Who says it's a cat?" He tried to play it off coolly, for a second turning his head the other way to look down the hall before he looked back at me.

"Show me what you have now, Dave!" I was growing concerned as I tried to dive around him, but he grabbed me before I could take more than a step.

"No rush, no rush," Dave hummed. At that moment he started to take the cat he was hiding behind him towards the front to show me. It was only when I finally saw it did my expectations of a regular cat shatter in response to what Dave actually had.

"What's wrong with it!?" I screeched. My eyes got wide, and my mouth dropped, as I saw what was obviously a cat, but mutated in a weird and twisted way. Its hair was a bit finer, making it look werewolf–ish, and its front fangs were a bit more defined and sabertooth-like. The thing that was the most off about it was what took the place of a tail; it reminded me of a dragon tail of some sort, with scales and everything that went up its spine and eventually disappeared into its scraggly fur. Its ears were also longer, sort of like a fox, and its eyes were a deep green color like the rest of its body.

"What did you do to it, Dave!?" I felt my heart thunk again as I stepped back.

"I made it for you!" Dave repeated. "Do you like it? Or are you, you know, completely horrified by it?"

"What kind of sicko are you!?" I continued yelling. "Of course I'm horrified! Look what you did to that poor thing!"

"It's not going to die or anything, just so you know," Dave said. "This is the product of my Medusa Serum! This cat had the privilege of being my first subject since my return."

"Wait a second…" I put a hand to my chest, attempting to keep my breathing steady. "This is what your Medusa Serum does? You're planning on doing this to those penguins?!" Yet again, I was met with something else that Dave hadn't bothered to tell me about before. I knew he kept saying he was going to make the penguins into monsters, but now I knew exactly what he had in mind now. I now knew what this Medusa Serum was.

"Dave, how could you!?" I reached out and snatched the cat, taking it in my arms as if it were my own. He seemed genuinely shocked when I took it from him.

"You like cats, right? Well, I thought you would like your own cat monster. You _don't_ like it, do you?"

"Of course I don't _like_ it!" I fussed. "You're going to do this to those penguins, I get that now, but taking this revenge shit out on innocent animals is not okay!"

"Innocent?" Dave's mouth dropped. "They are dumber than those penguins and yet they somehow get all the love and attention in the world. Same thing with dogs! They're manipulative, tiny, fuzzy creatures! I'm just making the playing field even."

"Turning things into green freaks won't change anything!" I huffed at him. "Just turn the cat back!"

"I can't…"

"Why not?!"

"Well, I made it to where the reverse effect is more difficult. The ray beam is rigged to where it will not accept a new source without my direct input. Besides, the only way to turn that cat back is if a source of immeasurable cuteness acts as a power source."

"Then find an immeasurable source of cuteness!"

"I guess... _you_ could work." Dave smiled a little, trying to hide it, however to no avail.

I felt my cheeks instantly turn red as my face twisted with confusion. I wasn't sure if that was, like, a freaking threat or his attempts at _flirting?_ Regardless of what his thoughts were, I got up in his face again.

"I don't know what you're trying to pull, Dave, but I will not tolerate another cat being abused like this!"

"Okay, fine, I'll go easy on the cats, geez." He seemed to relax a little bit, his chipper expression settling to that of concern as two of his tentacles wrapped around each other as if out of nervousness. "So, are we… okay?"

"Okay?" My eye twitched momentarily as I tried to withhold another burst of anger. I could see he was at least trying, so I guess I had to give him some credit. Argh! I don't know. "Fine. We're okay." I finally gave up. I was tired of being in that room all by myself anyway.

"Wonderful!" Dave chirped as his large grin returned. I seriously had the urge to bury my fist in his head again for doing what he did, but allowing myself to become caged in my own frustration would only drive me further into potentially losing my mind. Calmly, I took a deep breath, setting the cat down gently only to watch it scurry off into the submarine.

"So… Houston, huh?" I said, attempting to refrain from twitching.

"Yes!" Dave exhaled, as if he had been holding his breath from his last outward expression of joy. "Like I mentioned before, I need your help running our first official pledge drive since the conference in New York. First, however, we'll be stopping by the Houston Zoo to—"

"—To kidnap more penguins… yeah, I know." I couldn't help but finish his sentence for him. It was way too easy to do so and I expected him to repeat this plan to me anyway.

"Exactly!" he said, followed by letting out a chuckled. "Which is why I need you for all these upcoming events. You need to come to the zoo with me to help with my cover. We'll get into the zoo with me as Dr. Brine, but with the public around I'll need you to distract them. I'll be doing most, if not all the kidnapping of the penguins myself this time."

"Yay," I stated, rather sarcastically. Please keep in mind that I was still trying to stabilize my emotions, so coming off as a bitch was sort of inevitable. Also, regardless of how I thought I sounded, the idea of me being angry with him at this point had flown over his head and was forever left behind him. He was simply too excited to think otherwise. "So, what do I do now?" I finally asked, prepping myself for more idiocy.

"Just hold tight, dearest! We should reach the Texas shorelines in a day or so. In the meantime, we can check up on North Wind." Dave's joyful expression switched, in his own attempts to be villainous or something, but it ended up just looking like he was trying to pull off a shitty impression of Dr. Evil.

"Wait, check up on North Wind? You mean you know where they are?" I asked, actually a bit surprised. However, my reason to be so was immediately swept away as he responded.

"No, I don't know where they are. Remember, we're waiting for them to come to us. However, I still can hack into their systems. They tried putting up a new firewall but my henchmen and I figured out how to bypass that anyway."

"So, you're spying on them?"

"Not really. We're going to call them."

"Why?!" I felt like facepalming myself, but I've been doing that enough already while I was hiding in my room, so another one would make my forehead turn red. "Why would you call your enemies? Aren't we going for, I don't know, secrecy or something?"

"I'm trying to coax them to come to us faster," Dave stated. "Now please, as eager as I see you are to learn more about North Wind, I don't need to answer any more of your concerns myself. You'll get to ask them yourself, if you decide to talk."

Dave grabbed one of my hands, entangling it in his tentacle as he pulled me along. I barely had enough time to comprehend where we were going until we reached one of his main lab areas, where another large, flat computer screen was set upon the sides, there among it a few of his henchmen working in the background on a large cylinder of green goop. It was the same color as the cat Dave had brought me, so I assumed it was his Medusa Serum, though at the time I didn't ask about it.

As if Dave was trying to make this as perfect as he possibly could, he gestured to the henchmen that were in the room to stand beside the large container of Medusa Serum behind them. When they did, they held their tentacles outwards as if to showcase it, while he took me and placed me a bit behind himself, but to where I was obviously in line with the webcam's eye.

"Try and look intimidating and serious," Dave said, again smiling widely at me.

"Ugh." I sighed deeply and tried to stand up straight. Luckily I managed to take care of my appearance while I was in my room, so at least I wouldn't look like a slob when we called this North Wind group. Not like it mattered anyway. My attempts of looking intimidating came off more as a lack of caring for literally anything at the time, so I just let my nonexistent smile take over, though I've been told my natural face looked intimidating anyway, so I guess it worked.

"Okay, I'm going to call them." Dave proceeded to press a single button, and then the screen went black. After a few seconds, a connection went through, lighting the screen and revealing one, tiny baby seal sitting casually on a chair.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Dave gave an exaggerated, maniacal laugh for a few moments, I guess trying to do something to intimidate the baby seal on the other line, but it literally did nothing to faze him. It was only after Dave finished a few long, dreadful seconds of his laugh did he realize it was _only_ the seal he was talking too.

"Wait, where are the others?" Dave asked.

"Oh, they're busy," the baby seal responded, relaxed. "Not here right now."

"What do you mean they aren't there? I'm trying to make contact to initiate my brutal plans to destroy you! This is serious; go get them!"

"Nah, I think I'll just sit here," the seal replied. The situation was almost too adorable to handle, especially the little guy on the other line. Seriously, he represented North Wind? A cute baby seal? If that was the case these guys would be a huge pushover.

"Do you not care that I'm going to kidnap more penguins?" Dave was trying his best to be intimidating, which in normal circumstances he could have been, but the baby seal continually being unfazed just made it funny. I chuckled a little bit, causing Dave to turn around swiftly to look at me. "Kailey, control yourself," he stated before turning back to look at the screen. "I will continue calling until North Wind knows I have returned WITH FULL VENGEANCE!"

Just then a female voice with a thick accent appeared on the other end of the line. "Who is that? Short Fuse, vhat's going on?"

"Oh, just on time, Eva. Dave's calling again. I guess he thinks his same plan as last time is going to work or something."

A snow owl fluttered into the room, landing on the chair directly above Short Fuse, and proceeded to look up at us. She monitored us very closely for a few seconds before speaking. "What do you vant, now, Dave?" she asked again, this only making Dave more frustrated.

"I am making my official announcement to you that I have returned, and the game is back on," Dave recovered quickly despite his frustration. "I will be heading to Houston next. Those penguins will not stand a chance against me this time, and neither will you."

"That's adorable," Eva responded. She fluttered upwards to the front where the screen controls were located, and within a few seconds, the connection was cut.

Dave did not take it well.

"THEY DON'T THINK I'M A THREAT?" Dave hollered. "I'll show them what threatening is. They'll be sorry they ever took me as nothing less than a _threat_."

I wanted to laugh but I bit my lip in attempts to keep myself from making my humor in this situation vocal. Instead I cleared my throat and approached Dave, placing a hand on his back to show support. "Hey, they just don't know what you have in store for them yet. They're just playing you; loosen up. You got this." I don't know why I decided to be so nice to him but I guess I felt sorry for him. I mean, he was trying the same plan as last time over again apparently, so anybody like North Wind, a supposedly top notch organization, would see that as a pointless endeavor. But Dave's persistence was admirable, and I didn't want to leave him hanging.

"You're an angel," he looked back at me, his anger seeming to melt as a smirk replaced his expression. "Ah, I knew you cared."

"Don't push it," I stated seriously. "For the love of God, don't push it."

. . . . . . .

So far everything seemed to be going as planned. We reached the Texas shoreline around the time Dave predicted, and now were in Houston, about to reach the Houston Zoo. Dave had ordered his henchmen to prepare the pledge drive in the George R. Brown Convention Center, which was all too familiar to me since I yearly went there for comic cons and stuff. But regardless how I had been thinking ahead about Dave's plans, and what was expected of me (with all the awkward publicity and everything), I attempted to stay in the present time. If I thought ahead too much I'd probably just have another anxiety attack. So deep breaths and focusing on the floor was my best tactic to avoid my inevitable demise. For now.

"Ahh! What a beautiful day!" Dave took in a deep breath as the limo we were in pulled up towards the entrance of the Houston Zoo. He was all ready to go with his Dr. Brine disguise. "Can you just taste it?"

"Taste what?" I asked, since I was the only one in the limo with him other than the driver.

"Taste victory of course! Taste how everything is settling so well! Things always work out, just wait and see."

How the hell did Dave manage to stay so happy all the time? With his tragic past and passionate hatred for penguins and cute animals, I would assume he'd be a bitter little shit all the time. But regardless, he always seemed happy, and with a huge smile plastered onto his face. Again, I had to admire that. If I were in his situation I'd probably be one of those people who constantly had the urge to punch people. Well… I was already kind of like that anyway, but hey, I had my limits set straight.

"Now then, stay close, because the second someone sees us we might get a lot of attention." Dave was prepping me now, which was slightly different than how he had treated me before. Usually he'd just send me out with not even a good luck gesture, so he was obviously working on that. "I need you to stay as collected as you can and answer questions on my behalf. Just make something up if you don't know what to say."

"Make stuff up?" Yep, getting nervous was unavoidable. "You really want me to have all this responsibility?"

"I trust you," Dave said. "That's why I needed you here. And hey, if anyone else is going to distract them it's you. After all, everyone thinks we're… you know."

"Don't speak," I spat out as a blush suffused over my cheeks. I grit my teeth together as I tried to keep my composure, but this just caused him to send me another one of his smartass smirks. I was still pissed. I don't think I'd be officially forgiving him anytime soon.

"Just imagine you're the boss and they're all kissing your feet," Dave said. "That's what I do anyway. You've got to be a little vain if you want to make it as a villain, let alone a villainous assistant."

"I guarantee you, I'm not villainous."

"Really? You sure made the part with that punch of yours in New York. And that intimidation factor, woo, that was just the cherry on top."

I rolled my eyes. He was just trying to cheer me up in preparation for the bullshit I was about to do for him. He probably wouldn't compliment me otherwise.

My attention deterred from him only when the limo came to a complete stop. Once stopped, Dave opened the door and suddenly I heard a series of distant gasps from people immediately recognizing him. We were coming a bit later in the day, so avoiding any sort of attention from the now crowds of people was going to be impossible. Dave, in this case Dr. Brine, was so incredibly well known that he was basically a walking target for publicity and his thousands of fans. And I was now the red dot in his center; I'd be taking the full throttle of all his fans had for him onto myself as well.

I reluctantly came out of the limo a few moments afterwards, hopelessly watching as the limo drove off immediately, leaving me and Dave at the entrance to the Houston Zoo. Eyes were locked onto us like we were walking dead meat among hundreds of freaking buzzards who were waiting for the proper time to dive in. Even when we got to the entrance the workers eyed us like a bunch of kids seeing their favorite character from Disney World. A few managed to greet us, but despite this we were left with more gasps and dropped jaws than actual human greetings.

It was really weird. Like, are people really that shitty at communication?

"Be prepared, dearest," Dave spoke softly to me. "Once we get towards the penguin areas I'm going to slip towards the underground levels to swipe them away before anyone sees us. My henchmen will transport them to the submarine, and I'll be back soon to come with you to the pledge drive."

"Great," I tried to smile to act casual, but hidden beneath I wanted to jump out of my own skin. This was terrible. I didn't like bothering with people when I worked as an intern a few years back, even in little amounts, so this was basically a jump scare for me. I was prepared at any moment for some random person to try and attack us with questions. However, what I was _not_ expecting was more and ridiculous _awws_ from people who saw us.

"Isn't that sweet?" a woman said as she swooned over us. "Look at that precious couple, Gerard. See how obviously in love they are? Why don't you look at me like he looks at her!?"

Yikes. Whatever, lady. I don't know where in the ever living shits you got that idea from, but we are not _precious_ and we are not _in love_. Ugh. And to think this is how a majority of people saw us? I wanted to start crying; this was so frustrating.

"Hold my hand," Dave stated softly, as if to keep his voice from hitting the ears of the passing civilians.

"What? No way!" I muttered back, attempting to keep myself from yelling, but nonetheless my whispers were coming out in exclamations.

"Do it. We have to fill in the part."

"I'm not making this look like a freaking date, you ass stain."

"You have too. Look at them, they love it."

"I'd rather have my hands chopped off."

"You don't mean that. I'm not that bad, you know." He looked down at me then, causing a shift in my gaze that forced me to look back. He made a sort of pouty face, at first that was exaggerated, but after a few seconds of staring, I felt as if it was genuine.

 _S_ _hit!_ I hate it when I randomly started feeling bad. Like, I could hate and send curse word after curse word towards somebody, but the second they acted like their feelings were hurt I felt bad afterwards. That was one thing about me that sucked; a flaw in my personality. I acted tough and wanted to be able to be mean, but I ended up becoming a softie anyway. I hate this. Damn it!

"Fine," I hissed. I let my hand drop to my side, allowing my palm to extend to allow him to grasp it. It was only when he firmly took my hand into his own that I felt a shiver crawl up my arm and into my body like I had been zapped. Suddenly, with us holding hands more _awwws_ filled the vicinity, causing me to want to gag.

"Excuse me! Hello, Dr. Brine!" I heard the sound of a man call outwards. We stopped, still holding hands, as we saw a middle aged man with two children walk up to us. The guy was wearing a periodic table of elements shirt, so obviously he was a fan of science and fit the part of being a Dr. Brine fangirl quite nicely.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you and your fiancée on your date, but would you take a picture with my kids?"

The little girl in the front looked adoringly up at me as if I were freaking Wonder Woman or something. I don't know, but when a little kid does that to you, something about it just makes you feel warm inside. Like, was I really capable of doing that to some kid? The last time that legitimately happened was when I was cosplaying as Princess Belle, but even then I realized I was dressed as another person. I wasn't myself. But here and now, I _was_ myself, and I was being admired for it. It felt… really nice, to be completely honest.

"Are you a scientist too?" the little girl asked. She clasped her hands together, as if to keep herself from floating away with excitement.

"No. I'm not a scientist," I stated honestly, making sure to smile pleasantly as to not intimidate her. I don't know what it was with little kids, but I felt like I had to be as nice as I could possibly be or I'd break them into tiny fragile pieces. "But I am a professional business woman!" I don't know how that sounded in comparison to being a scientist, but the girl's eyes lit up anyway.

"You're a business woman? I thought there were only business men."

I raised a brow, confused for a second, but proceeded talking anyway. "Nope. I'm a girl and I have a professional degree. I also work for the most renowned geneticist in the world, which, mind you, makes me a boss in my own rights. Any girl can be a business woman. You can be anything you want as a matter of fact."

She looked all excited for a moment, then ran up and hugged my waist. I was stunned for a moment, but ended up hugging her back. Her brother ran up to us as well, specifically beside Dave as the father took out his camera and prepped the picture.

"All right kids, say science!"

"SCIENCE!" the kids said in unison, and then a flash went off.

After the picture was taken the little boy turned around and looked up at Dave, extending a hand to give him a fist pump. "You're super cool!" he said to Dave, then ran off towards his dad as they departed. It wasn't but a few seconds later did I feel Dave's hand trembling in my own, which caused me to look up at him with concern.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked.

It took a few seconds, but eventually I saw that Dave had a mild shimmer in his eye. I found myself jumping in front of him to get a better look before I proceeded asking questions. "Hey, seriously, are you okay? Why are you… uhh, look like you're about to bawl?"

"I'm not bawling," Dave stated seriously and took a deep sigh. He seemed to get control of himself rather well then, dismissing any sort of emotion he let leak.

"Don't lie to me, Dave," I said sternly.

"Call me Octavius in public, please," he stated.

"Fine. _Octavius_." What kind of name was Octavius anyway? I knew Dave liked to stick to his roots but was that seriously a real name? It sounded kinda snobbish to me, probably a name from some Greek or Roman guy most likely. I have no idea.

"It's just good to be told I'm cool. By a child. Which isn't often anymore," he stated sincerely. It took me a moment but I realized this probably had to do with his 'tragic past'. I mean, he did tell me he got kicked out of the Central Park Zoo, as well as all the others after that because of people's obsession with penguins. So, prior to Skipper, Rico, Kowalski, and Private sparking the beginning of his demise, Dave must have been used to all the praise he received, especially from children. After that, it was taken away from him.

I didn't agree with him turning penguins into monsters, but I understood a little better how he must have felt. Little details like this helped me piece the puzzle together.

"Hey, that's completely reasonable," I responded, attempting to be the cheerful one now. "And if it still means anything to you, I still think you're cool."

"Really?" he asked. A soft smile replaced his attempts to be serious.

"Yeah. Really." I normally never got sappy like that, but for some reason I just couldn't resist. Despite that Dave was putting me through a bunch of crap, I guess I kinda liked him. Which is weird because he's putting me _through_ crap, but you know, he still was a pretty chill guy. I mean, octopus. Whatever. Seriously, that was hard to tell when he was in disguise.

"Now enough of this goo-goo talk," I snapped back into reality swiftly. "Let's go see those penguins."

"Oh, yes!" Dave seemed to have been absent minded of his revenge plan for a second too, which was a surprise as well. "Yes, the penguins! Come along, dearest." He seemed to resume tugging me along as usual, though the only difference now was I wasn't quite as embarrassed as I was before. The random _awws_ that were sent our direction didn't feel as weird as before, even though I wanted to throw things at those who did it. Now we were on mission mode. For once I was confident enough, but that confidence was literally a ticking time bomb before I was placed in yet another awkward situation.

We reached the penguin area when suddenly a bunch of people started crowding in front of us. Among them, and apparently having been waiting for us, was a couple of news teams. They excitedly watched us as we approached, though Dave stopped before we got too close.

"Now listen to me," Dave said, removing his hand from my own and placing it on my shoulder instead. "I'm going to leave you here to deal with the press and other fans. I'm going to slip underground and start gathering the penguins. I need you to keep them distracted. Try not to let them look towards the penguin tanks."

"All right," I nodded, swallowing hard in attempt to collect myself. So much for my confidence, but Dave seemed to have enough confidence in me to cancel my discouragement out somewhat.

Dave smiled before he departed from me, disappearing into one of the buildings close by that caused the crowd to target me instead. I was situated where the penguin dens were in front of me, and towards the backs of the civilians and news teams.

"Uhhh," I muttered aloud as I walked forward, waving slightly at the smiling crowd and flashing cameras. "Hey, folks. What's up?"

 _What's up_ _?_ Did I seriously just ask them _what's up_ _?_

"Kailey, correct?" one of the news ladies said as she approached me. This caused the crowd to move with her, away from the tanks and towards me. I felt myself tense up as they got closer; they all looked at me with wide smiles and large eyes as if waiting for me to do something spectacular.

"Yes. That is I." I don't normally talk like that so when I said that answer out loud, I felt like I fit the role of a nerdy fiancée all too well.

"Where did Dr. Brine go?"

"Oh, he—he needed to use the bathroom. I apologize for the inconvenience." My first lie seemed to come out all right. However, from my statement, suddenly a bunch of dudes ran from the crowd and to the bathroom area, I guess in hopes of finding Dave there. Which was pretty weird. I wouldn't want to meet anyone in the bathroom, but you know, to each his own. Even though a good handful left to try and find Dave elsewhere, it didn't do too much to cause the crowd in front of me to diminish in size.

"Oh, that's quite all right," the news lady said. A bunch of microphones suddenly spilled in front of the crowd with arms attached to them as a few other news teams tried to record the event. "With you here we would like you to answer a few questions for us."

"Errr… sure," I stated. My eyes shifted towards the tank behind the crowd of people then to get a look at the penguins. They seemed fine as of now. Tranquil and carefree, they were expecting nothing, as I had hoped.

"It's an honor to have you and Dr. Brine here in Houston. Tell us, is this a part of your mentioning to donate to zoos and their penguin exhibits?"

I had to full throttle bullshit now. I lied to my father quite often before I had gone off to college, so I suppose lying to potentially thousands of people wouldn't be a huge deal. _Just pretend they're all my dad_. I ended up doing a _Water Boy_ thing and pictured all their heads as my dad's instead.

"Yes. As a matter of fact we're here to visit the penguins in preparation to donate. Some percentage of our income at our pledge drive this afternoon will go to them."

The crowd muttered to each other excitedly, apparently buying my lie, before the woman continued speaking.

"How about you and Dr. Brine? We all know you are his fiancée. Have you set a wedding date?"

"Uhhhh." I felt embarrassment take over. Wasn't this a little personal for a news team to ask? I had to give myself a moment to collect myself before I spat out another lie. "There is no specific date yet. We're rather busy right now with pledge drives so those plans will be postponed until they are completed."

"Would you mind answering us a few more personal questions? How did you meet Dr. Brine?"

"Well… it was during his hiatus, actually," I stated. I tried not to look one particular person in the eye for too long as to not break my mental image of lying to my dad. Although picturing my dad now just made everything more awkward. I don't know how he would handle me dating, let alone marrying someone like Dr. Brine. My dad was a jock, you see. He didn't take well to… well, nerds.

"Oh, I see! What caused you guys to start dating, and then have him propose so quickly?"

Her question came out rather quickly, so I wasn't as prepared this time. Out of awkwardness my eyes shot up from the crowd as my heart started racing. My attempts to avoid looking at those people, however, was only exchanged for seeing the penguin exhibit behind them.

To my horror I saw many of Dave's tentacles suddenly pop from a drain under the water, and reach around to start snatching the penguins. It was happening so quickly that I literally gasped from surprise.

"Oh, God!" I yelled out loud. I realized this was a horrible idea. I felt more adrenaline course through me as my brain processed my mistake and spat out a bunch of outcomes if I didn't correct it quickly. I immediately, out of complete stress, shot my attention back down to the crowd, who continued to look at me, and twisted my exclamation to what I just saw into a new sentence. "Oh, God! Dr. Brine is… so _handsome!_ I mean, he's so smart too, and rich, so when he proposed I was like… hell yeah!"

 _Shit shit shit shit shit._ What kind of dumbass was I making out of myself now!? What the actual fuck!? This time I wanted to punch _myself_ _!_

"That's… very interesting," the woman said. The fans behind her started giggling and squeeing to themselves, some acting like they wanted to cry. I realized I was now feeding a ship I didn't want to be a part of. _Christ, please just come back now and take me, I can't handle this anymore._

I found my eyes looking back towards the penguin exhibit when I realized they were all gone. Like, every single one, without a trace, was gone. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things and stared at the tank a little longer. The only difference to the tank was the water level was drained slightly, but other than that they had vanished. Dave had taken them so easily it was like they were never even there.

Just then, Dave, as Dr. Brine once again, came running up behind me, playing along with my stare as we both let our mouths hang open towards the penguin tanks.

"Oh—oh my GOD!" Dave yelled, playing worried and outright scared for the crowd. "What happened to the penguins!?"

This caused the crowd to turn around and join our stare, causing a bunch of gasps and screams to fill the air.

"OH MY GOD, THE PENGUINS ARE GONE!" some people yelled. They were outright terrified.

"Oh no! Poor penguins!" Dave hollered, again, only adding to the chaos.

"THE PENGUIN SNATCHER HAS RETURNED!" someone in the crowd yelled.

"But, Dr. Brine! He'll save them! Just like he did last time!"

"Yes, Dr. Brine will save them!"

Suddenly a bunch of positive outcries were directed at us. Everyone was suddenly placing all hope in Dave, who they thought was the 'perfect Dr. Brine', not realizing that he was the biggest lie they had ever known.

"Do not worry, civilians!" Dave stood tall while walking out among them. "I will find the precious penguins! However, I cannot do it without your help! Please, attend my pledge drive this afternoon, as well as others scheduled around the United States! With your donations, I will use it to save the penguins!"

The crowd went wild. They were buying into his scheme so easily, just like moths to a fire. This was exactly what Dave had intended, too. I could tell by the casual look in his eye as he looked over the people in front of him. The cheers only fueled his pride and confidence.

Seriously though, that worked out really good. Like, _super_ good. I don't know if Dave was simply the best planner in the world, or he manipulated the situation just so to where he set himself up to look like a godsend. The people loved him as it was, but now they were seemingly kissing his feet. _Only Dr. Brine could save the penguins_ _!_ Yeah right. I knew people could fall for tricks rather easily, but this was pathetic. They literally didn't know any better.

From the cries and hopeful cheers I found my gaze slipping towards one of the surveillance cameras sitting above the penguin dens. It looked to be turned off, obviously by Dave and his henchmen, though perching on top of the disabled camera itself was an owl. The same snow owl I had seen during the call with North Wind.

The camera didn't catch what happened, but she did. Even with our eyes locked, I felt like chains were suddenly wrapped around my ankles, and a spotlight was fired on top of me. I had no real reason to be afraid of her though. After all, she was a tiny little snow owl, and her teammate was a baby seal. They were pushovers, just like I had stated, and I thought that still to that very moment.

But why was it that I felt so exposed? Why did I feel like Dave and I weren't in control after all?


	9. Dinner and a Ring

The George R. Brown Convention Center was packed. And by packed, I mean surprisingly full of people, all lined up and prepared to meet Dave and I with arms extended and cash and credit cards in hand.

Although we didn't rent out the entire convention hall, it probably would have been easier to do so with the line of civilians getting longer and longer by the hour. Luckily for me, Dave was smart enough to allow volunteers to help collect the money, who were more than willing to do so along with me overlooking the process. It was a pretty straightforward job, but also extremely repetitive. To break the boring aspect of it, I did get a few nut jobs who started fangirling over Dave, though those came and went too quickly to get my heart up and pumping again with stress.

For once, things actually seemed pretty normal. To all the people of the world, normal ol' Dr. Brine was just a highly educated geneticist, and his overly normal fiancée was running a pledge drive for him for the greater good in the scientific field, and to help rescue kidnapped penguins. Totally normal. There was no secret plan of turning said penguins into green monsters, and the geneticist in question was totally not actually a large purple octopus who was behind the kidnappings after all. Like, who would say such a thing? Yes, everything was completely okay.

TOTALLY NORMAL.

Only it wasn't, and although I seemed collected and calm, on the inside my subconsciousness was screaming at me. All lies, Kailey! ALL LIES! Everything you've ever known about the concept of other creatures is actually a huge lie! Animals talk, think and gain knowledge just like humans! This guy, Dr. Brine specifically, was a super smart freaking _octopus_ with freaking teeth! And yet I was the only one who knew about it. I was the only one who knew who Dr. Brine really was and what his plans really were. Like I've probably thought countless times, I was privileged to know about all this. But at the same time, I was also the only one. There was no talking to friends about it, or telling my parents about my adventures. I had to let myself become engulfed in this lie. I had to convince myself that everything was all right, and that working for a powerful evil mastermind was pretty straightforward. I had to tell myself now that I was technically the bad guy. Which is weird, because never in my life would I have thought of myself as working for _the_ bad guy.

But, ya know. Things… don't really work out the way you think they will.

A few hours into the pledge drive things were still going strong, although the line stopped getting larger at a certain point and stabilized. I'm pretty sure I almost shat myself a few times from looking at the added up receipts and boxes of money behind the counter. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I'd ever see that much money; and to think this was only the first pledge drive.

We were going to need all the money we could get, though. I imagine keeping up as a bad guy would be expensive anyway, not to mention with Dave maintaining his submarine and new corporate building, and God knows what else, wasn't going to be cheap.

"I'd like to pledge fifty dollars a month, with one hundred as a down payment please."

Some of these requests were almost too good to be true. Sometimes that down payment was way more when it was another corporate representative. I always knew that people liked to throw money at things they liked, but they were so excited about Dr. Brine and concerned about the penguins they were now willing to do it blindly. Although, I think they were pretty much doing it blindly from the beginning, but now they just weren't looking into the facts. I was surprised there wasn't someone—anyone who thought differently about this, but alas. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.

At one point I was staring at one of the boxes of money, when I heard someone call my name. At first I thought nothing of it, but when it happened a second time I finally looked up to see who it was.

"Kailey! Over here!"

The voice had become all too familiar. Within an instant my calm outward appearance was ripped to shreds when I saw my cousin Leah, and _both_ my freaking parents.

"Kailey, what are you doing?!" Leah yelled again, waving her hand high to try and get my attention. My dad stood broodingly behind my mother and cousin with his arms crossed and his expression withholding his ever constant irritability. My mom, on the other hand, was smiling pleasantly my direction; both however were silent while my cousin called me out.

My hands had come out in front of me by then, making claws with my fingers as if I was a raccoon caught in the act of eating out of the trash. I felt my heart rise to my throat as I felt heat flashes coming on. When they approached me, I only stiffened more.

"Kailey, we've been so worried about you!" my cousin continued as they pushed through the line and upfront. A few people gave them rude looks for cutting in line, but I didn't think much to stop it. I was literally frozen with shock like a goat or something.

"Yeeeeah," I stuttered. I seriously didn't know what to say. What was I _supposed_ to say?

"We thought something terrible happened! When I came to the house and found you weren't there I was worried sick! We all were!" Leah started explaining anxiously. "And then we find out you ran off with… Dr. Brine!?"

Oh my God. They thought I ran off with Dr. Brine. If I wasn't embarrassed already I sure was then.

"Look, it's more complicated than that," I tried to reason, but my father stepped forward, almost angry.

"I expected this kind of bullshit from other members of our family, but not you, Kailey!" he fussed. "Running off with some stranger!? And then planning on getting married without telling us, or where you've been!?"

"Darren, please, keep your voice down," my mom said, gently placing a hand on his arm. "This is a professional setting; don't embarrass her."

Bless you, mother. God bless you because you are the only relief I had in this ever flushing sewer of a situation I was in right now.

"I didn't raise you like this!" my dad yelled again. My mom tugged on his arm a bit, seemingly calming him down a little.

"Darren, please, control yourself," my mother said. "I don't think of her as a disappointment. She took the opportunity to seek out a great job, right out of college, mind you, and find someone she loves. It doesn't hurt that Dr. Brine is smart and rich either. Kailey's going to make a lot of herself now. She has a good future." My mom turned to me, still smiling gently. "And to think we thought you'd never get married. When you told me you were… what was it? Asexual?"

"Mom… Just because I'm ace doesn't mean I'm not capable of having relationships. I told you already, romantic attraction and sexual attraction are completely different concepts." I wanted to facepalm myself. I thought this was behind us with my constant repeating of what being ace was. Good lord.

"I don't care if he's rich, he's a fuckin' nerd!" my dad fussed again, but he kept his voice down. "I don't want grandchildren from him!"

_What the actual hell, Dad, what did I just say about me being ace!? I'm not having kids, dammit, how hard is that to grasp, you old fart!_

"Please, Darren, please!" my mom's voice heightened. I could tell they wanted to start fighting, but before things escalated too quickly I felt a hand place itself on my shoulder.

"What do we have here?" It was Dave. He finally decided to come over, which at the time I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

"It's so nice to finally meet you, Dr. Brine!" My mom immediately fell from her potential hostility towards my dad and extended a hand outward to Dave. "I'm Kailey's mother, and this is her father and cousin."

"Oh?" Dave seemed surprised. Idiot. Why he was surprised I have no freaking idea. He decided to announce this fiancée shit and then have the nerve to take me back to Houston, so what did he expect would happen? I don't know why I didn't see this coming sooner.

"This is quite an honor. Would you care if I treated you all out to dinner tonight after the pledge drive? I'd love to speak to you about any of your concerns." Dave's invite was actually a surprise on its own. With the invite to dinner I could see the hostility in my dad's eyes slightly diminish, although he still kept up his big bully attitude in appearance.

"Sure…" my dad said, suddenly turning from angry dad mode to professionalism quickly. He ran his own company anyway, so seeing him transition from the Hulk to business man was always strange to witness, but happened often. "I know a few good restaurants."

"Pick whatever you want, I'm open to anything. Please don't feel limited cost wise, either." Dave was giving off such genuine kindness with a mixture of professional mannerism that I was shocked. I mean, I knew he lied pretty well, but now he seemed to act like a _normal_ person. It was almost calming how he handled the situation, especially when it came to my dad.

"There's a good place closer to where we live. Are you okay with Japanese food?" my dad suggested, seemingly testing Dave. I knew what place he was talking about. It was almost forty bucks a person to eat there.

"Japanese food is perfect. I haven't had a good plate of seafood in quite some time," Dave smiled, wanting to give off his crooked tooth grin but managed to hold it back.

Yay. A dinner night with my parents. With Dave. How bad could this possibly go?

. . . . . . .

We ended up meeting my parents at the Japanese restaurant my dad had suggested later that evening. It was about 6:00 PM, so we were there right when the place opened. Luckily for us, the place wasn't that packed. It usually wasn't, on weekdays particularly, so good for me. I didn't want to bother with too many people staring at us the entire time.

Once we found our table and our drinks were ordered, we started towards the buffet area. We scattered to different places at first, my parents towards the salad areas, my cousin towards the noodles and rice, while Dave and I went towards the sushi area.

"Look, don't screw this up," I stated as he stood behind me, waiting for me to finish loading my plate. "My dad's kinda an asshole, so be extra careful with him. Don't go talking about weird shit around him, got it?"

He was quiet. At first I thought it was because he was nervous, or taken aback by my words, but once I moved out of the way, he started filling his plate up to the brim with sushi. I watched him for a long time along with the guy behind the counter that made the sushi. Before long Dave had a literal pyramid of raw fish on his plate.

"Wow." I raised a brow, mildly concerned. "I guess you haven't eaten in awhile."

"This looks good, and it's a buffet. I'm going to eat it," he said seriously.

"They have whole fish over there if you want," I gestured, though before I felt like I could explain he dashed off towards the area I had told him about, and around his pyramid of sushi placed a few whole fish on his plate. After a few moments of waiting for Dave, we finally headed back to the table, where my parents and cousin were already starting to eat.

My mom seemed to pause when she saw Dave's plate, but my dad didn't seem fazed whatsoever. As a matter-of-fact my dad's plate was just as packed.

"You should try the snow crab after you finish that," my dad suggested. "Probably the best I've ever had."

"Oh, I will," Dave said curiously before he prepped himself to start eating.

I opened my chopsticks and started eating slowly and mannered like my mother and cousin, only finishing one piece of sushi before Dave suddenly grabbed the whole fish with his hands and shoved it _in his mouth_ _._

My stomach turned as I gave him the most powerful glare I could muster. My parents and cousin seemed to stare as well, but their appearance was more of shock than anger like me.

"The bones don't bother you?" my mom asked with worry.

I managed to scoot my leg over towards Dave's and kick him as hard as I could. He flinched as he tried to hold back any expression of pain, getting the signal I was trying to send him then, and only then.

"Oh! Uhh. No, not really." Dave tried to play it off as he turned to look at me. I gestured with my eyes towards the plate, hoping he'd understand my body language, put the damned fish down, and eat with utensils like a normal person. It took him a second, but he did as I told and started opening his chopsticks.

"So… Kailey. What happened that night? The night you disappeared?" Leah asked. "You always tell me how you hate going out when it starts getting late, and then you go off and disappear."

"She was running off with her future husband, that's why," my mom chuckled.

"Geez, mom," I grit my teeth together as I tried to withhold any embarrassment. "Really?" I took a moment to look over at Dave then, who was trying to pick up a piece of sushi with the chopsticks. He seemed to be having trouble; his tongue was sticking out the side of his mouth as he concentrated.

"Do you need a fork?" I asked.

"No! I got this." Dave didn't break eye contact with the food. I guess I couldn't make fun of him too much. Who knows how his 'hands' worked under those gloves anyway.

"Anyways…" Leah continued. "So is that true? You really ran off with… Dr. Brine?"

"Call me Octavius," Dave smiled towards Leah and my parents. "We are going to be family, after all."

I felt my cheeks flush again as my hands clutched my chopsticks, wanting to break them in half.

"That's so sweet. I always knew my daughter would marry a doctor." My mom seemed to be the giddiest about this, while my cousin and father kept quiet. "You two must be so happy."

"Happy is an understatement," Dave grinned proudly, "but it really is quite a pleasure to meet you all." He looked over to me, while I was still trying to withhold my irritation from destroying my eating utensils. "Kailey, to be honest, I haven't been this happy since the day you agreed to be my wife."

"I never agreed," I hissed. I felt the lightheartedness at the table fall back suddenly as my parents looked at me strangely. My cousin's gaze slipped from my parents to Dave and I, seeing an awkward situation rise rather quickly from what was starting to be a normal conversation.

"Ha! She's hilarious isn't she?" Dave chuckled nervously, but caught the bad situation just in time before his little secret got out. "She always jokes around like that."

"Speaking of your proposal, where is Kailey's ring?" my dad asked suspiciously, apparently sticking to his guns.

"Octavius didn't _get_ me one," I spat out again. I didn't really know what I was doing or why I was doing it to be honest. I just felt like keeping all these lies hidden from my parents, particularly my mom, was hard. My dad not so much, but you know, whatever. The fact that Dave also almost accidentally made a freak of himself by eating fish whole was concerning as well.

"I didn't want to get her one until I found the right one!" Dave stepped in again, deterring any suspicion like the pro he was. I was starting to think that was all he had up his sleeve before he reached into the pocket of his lab coat and took out a small box. "As a matter-of-fact, this is the perfect opportunity to give it to you, my dear."

My mother gasped, dropping her chopsticks once her eyes met the tiny black velvet box. My dad seemed to stiffen while my cousin gave all her attention to Dave and I. Even the few people that were in the restaurant seemed to look our way, which made that uncomfortable spotlight feeling take over once again.

"Kailey, I'm sorry I didn't have this for you before," Dave said, turning towards me as he spoke gently. It was really weird. Like, the situation was weird, yes, but I felt really funny. It was like a mixture of butterflies in my stomach and wanting to puke, but I couldn't quite pinpoint exactly which sensation was the strongest.

Once Dave opened the box though, was when that little butterfly feeling seemed to take over the nausea. In the black velvet box was the most beautiful rock I had ever seen. The diamond had a mild green hue to it, while the band itself was silver, seemingly glistening under the lights like shallow ocean water under a midnight moon.

"Uhhh…" was all I could really get out at the moment. I watched his fingers take the ring lightly from the box, then with his other hand take my own. It happened in slow motion as he guided the ring onto my finger.

I heard sniffles from across the table as my mom started choking up. "This is so precious," she said. "Oh Darren, our baby is getting married!"

Shit. I was getting _married_ _._ This was… for real?

"You didn't have to… do that," I muttered, still looking down at the ring. It was almost dreamlike. I seriously was not expecting this. I mean, this was supposed to be a big fat lie, right? RIGHT?

"Of course I had to do it," Dave said sincerely, taking his hand from my own and slipping it under my chin, guiding my gaze to meet his. "What kind of husband would I be if I didn't get my bride a ring?"

My mom reached to her lap, taking her napkin and blew her nose. I even heard a few _awwws_ from the people at other tables, apparently having seen the whole thing too. Me, on the other hand, well, my brain was literally storming at that point. I didn't know what to think. I was pissed before, yeah, but now… I don't know _how_ I felt. I wasn't used to this. At all. I never had a boyfriend before to begin with. That whole endeavor just seemed like a useless thing, and I still thought it was. But looking at Dave, and feeling that ring on my finger, made it different.

"Eat you freaking sushi," I snapped, instantly pulling away from Dave and picked up my chopsticks again. "This buffet costs forty freaking dollars a person, eat your damned food."

. . . . . . .

"Thank you for dinner, Octavius," my mother said. My father walked up and shook his hand, while my cousin stood silently aside, I guess her way of soaking this all in. I was pretty much doing the same thing, so I couldn’t blame her.

"It was my greatest pleasure," Dave replied. "We’ll have to do this again sometime."

"Sounds like a plan," my dad said, and nodded. "I know a good Mediterranean place we could try next time." Geez, at least my dad was acting a little less hostile. Eh, I don't know.

"As long as they have seafood I'm all for it. Or cheese." Dave smiled. My father seemed to look him over for a moment, his final ways of judging him probably, then waved.

After that, my mother walked over to me and gave me a big hug, sighing deeply as she held me in her arms. "Take care, Kailey," she said. "I love you."

"I love you too, Mom." I felt like I wanted to cry a little. I guess it's been so long since I've actually seen my mom that I was getting a little homesick. But of course, I knew that Dave expected me to go right back into mission mode and deal with more of his revenge crap.

After a long embrace that I wished could last even longer, my cousin and my parents walked off. We watched them get into their truck and drive off. Dave and I stood there for a few more seconds in silence before he started talking again.

"You doing all right?" Dave asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Just making sure." He looked around the parking lot, then paused briefly before giving his attention back to me. "I have no idea where the limo is. Give me a sec. I'm going to go back inside and use the restaurant's phone."

"Oh, okay," I said. Dave was acting funny, but I suppose that was normal. I watched him slowly wander back into the restaurant, leaving me out in the front by myself. It was dark, with only the lamps from the restaurant illuminating the entryway and the parking lot before me.

I looked out among the many stationed cars, though my mind fell back into space. My parents seemed to be okay with all of this, which I suppose was a good thing. Dave and I were keeping a secret after all, and as much as I did want to tell my mom about everything, I knew it wouldn't be good for Dave. I don't even know how they would react to the truth anyway, especially Leah. Which was kinda weird, considering I was literally telling her about the window incident straightforward the day before I disappeared. You'd think she would have put the puzzle together and realized I wasn't lying.

Then again, maybe not. Like all the other humans in the world, she was just as blind as them. They all were.

Just then, I heard the sound of wings flutter above me. It was loud, and gave off an airy _whoosh_ as it came forward, but was instantly silenced after a second or two. I found myself looking behind me, up at the lanterns on the sides of the building to see what had made the sound, when I saw her.

It was the snow owl again.

I looked at her, almost letting out a glare. I was getting suspicious now. This was the second time today I had seen her. However, she didn't do much of anything but stay perched above the lamp. Because of this, her large eyes seemed to make me nervous. I felt that same sensation as before, where I felt chained, and the lights around me gathered together as if creating a spotlight.

Wait a second—there _were_ lights gathering around me!

A powerful gust overcame the air, entangling my hair upward into a dance as I covered my ears. Looking up, I was blinded by a strong light from something flying above me. It didn't sound like a helicopter of any kind I knew, so suddenly urgency had returned to my once calm state.

Within a matter of seconds, an extremely large figure fell from the lights above me, landing with a hard pound that actually sent shockwaves into the concrete that I could easily feel through my feet. It only took an instant for my eyes to adjust to see what had just landed in front of me.

Standing there was a freaking _polar bear_ _._ He was on his hind legs, so his sheer massive size triggered a distress signal in my brain that screamed 'DANGER! GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!'

I stared at him, wide eyes and everything, before the signal went from my brain and to my legs to get me to start running. I spun around, hoping to blast back inside the restaurant and get Dave, but the second I made my turn was when someone else blocked my way.

This time, it was a freaking _wolf_.

"Shit!" I yelled, completely terrified. The wolf was on two legs too, bringing his height clearly above mine, although he wasn't quite as big as the polar bear. Regardless, the only thing that was going through my mind was that I needed to get away, but being blocked like this caused me to do the only other thing I could think of doing.

I screamed. I screamed bloody freaking murder as if I'd never scream again. The wolf in front of me flinched, wanting to place his hands to his ears but hesitated for the sake of keeping his hands in front of him.

"Corporal, please restrain her," he said.

I felt the polar bear start walking; that was obvious from how sensitive my feet were feeling the ground through my shoes and into the concrete as he paced. I made a decision quickly; instead of letting the bear take me from behind, I'd give my chances fighting the wolf instead.

I know, that sounds ridiculous. How can I possibly fight a freaking wolf and win?

But hell, I wasn't going to let those odds stop me. I ran forward, charging at the wolf with all the speed and power I could put in, and bent down just a tad. When I got my feet situated right, I launched upward like a rocket, and headbutted him in the lower jaw.

"AHHH!" It apparently hurt him and caused him to back up a bit. However, that didn't seem to keep him from talking. "Corporal, quick! Get her! Don't let her escape!"

While he sent out his commands I steered myself left, but before I could put distance between the situation and myself, I felt a claw grab my lab coat and lift me up. I could only kick and punch the air as I was lifted a good few feet from the ground.

"LET ME GO, YOU'RE HURTING ME!" I yelled as loud as I could. I knew I was going to be bruised after this.

"I'm sorry..." I heard Corporal say, quite sincerely, before the wolf sneered.

"Don't apologize to the enemy, Corporal!" he huffed. "Get her on the ship and we'll take her to base. Hurry, before David gets here!"

Christ! I was being kidnapped again! And this time I definitely knew I wasn't in good hands. This was North Wind, and I was the enemy. And boy, I didn't stand a chance.


	10. Into the Blue

With my arms tied and yet again my sanity falling ever further into a pit, I could only watch as my new captors coordinated their aircraft onwards, taking me to God knows where. I had sat there in silence for a good long while—so long that I'm pretty sure I dozed off every now and again but was constantly reawakened whenever I reminded myself that I was indeed in a situation that could be considerably dangerous if I was not careful.

I found it was easier, however, to do as they said: remain quiet and cooperative. I had no idea what North Wind was capable of doing to me, but to be honest I didn't want to find out. I figured if I played goody-two-shoes and acted like a normal person they'd go easier on me. That was the case anyway, for now.

Throughout the flight my state of mind was constantly dreading what they were going to do with me, and where they were taking me, along with what Dave was going to do about all this. To be honest, I had no idea how he would possibly find me. North Wind was already difficult to track as it was, so on and off again I had doubts that I would ever be rescued.

Ha! Rescued. By Dave. Good Lord, I'd never thought the day would come where I'd want to be rescued by _Dave_ _._

And yet, another thought came from out of the blue. Maybe I wouldn't be rescued. Maybe I was expendable. I mean, of course that crossed my mind. I was only kidnapped for the sake of helping Dave, his Dr. Brine persona, and his plans for revenge on the penguins. And even diving further into that fact, I wouldn't have even been kidnapped if I didn't go blabbering to my cousin that I saw octopuses break my window and all that bull. He only took me to keep my mouth shut. Again, for the sake of his revenge.

But at the same time, I kept clutching my left fist tightly from behind me, feeling the ring on my finger as if it was a reminder that maybe he… well, liked me more than as just his evil assistant. For the longest time I thought this was all just a lie; a cover for all the crap he had put me through. A ring wasn't necessary whatsoever, even with his supposed 'bluff' about me being his fiancée. But a ring? A real ring? Now that changed things. I felt because of that ring on my finger, Dave didn't see me as something expendable. I wasn't just another one of his henchmen. I was his equal. His partner.

Ugh! What the hell am I even thinking!? He's a freaking _octopus_! I'm not going to be freaking Scarlet here, screw that shit.

"Eva, take us in smoothly, I don't want our new ship to get any dents," the wolf said with a mild chuckle in his voice.

I realized then that we were about to land. Still, I had no idea where we were due to my position in the back, though that didn't stop me from trying to figure it out. I constantly tried lifting myself up to see further out of the cockpit windshield, though every time I did I could only see clear blue sky with some ocean as the aircraft bobbed. However, something did come into my line of sight after a few minutes of trying. What I saw actually took my breath away.

It was an iceberg. There was an iceberg here. Where the hell was I?!

The ship started towards the iceberg, then again, to my surprise, an opening appeared and the ship slipped inside, disappearing from the outside world and into what was obviously their headquarters. The concept of their headquarters being in a freaking iceberg was confusing as it was, so I was stuck contemplating my situation in depth before the ship finally landed.

Corporal stood up soon after, and turned around to face me while Short Fuse and Eva did the same. The wolf stood back, yet again calmly, as his teammates approached me. When Corporal acted like he wanted to pick me up again like he had done before, I stiffened and tried talking.

"Look, there's no need for force. I'll walk. Honestly." I tried smiling, but I'm pretty sure it just came out as a cringe instead. I was pretty worried, so acting like everything was okay was hard.

Corporal looked back to the wolf for an answer to this, but when the wolf made nothing big out of it, I was allowed to walk. Thank God, because my armpits were still sore from him picking me up by my coat from the last time.

"Just keep your eyes forward and do as ve say," Eva stated, rather too seriously for my liking. Corporal made sure that I kept walking as he pushed me along while the wolf and Short Fuse followed. Even though they were just out of my line of vision, I could feel all their eyes on me. It was like a thousand little needles were sticking me in the back.

As we walked I took note of my surroundings, nonetheless. The place was rather large, so any thoughts of escaping were whipped from my plans pretty quickly. I still didn't know my way around Dave's submarine, so the idea of trying to coordinate my way through this place made me nervous. It was hard to imagine seeing myself successfully escape this place with these four on my tail, not to mention we were in an actual iceberg, so I don't know where the hell I would go even if I managed to get out the door. Not to mention the place was filled with other North Wind members. I saw a good handful of trainees march along the large deck areas around other flying machines, and even high above them, through windows of a blue hued glass, other members were walking back and forth, and in and out of offices.

Sheesh. And to think I was literally just bad mouthing (well, bad thinking) these guys earlier that day. North Wind didn't just consist of a tiny, cute baby seal and a lightweight snow owl. These guys consisted of big, powerful freaking animals, and lots of them too. Like, the saying 'lions, tigers and bears oh my!' actually was fairly accurate in this situation, because literally everywhere I looked there was something big, with sharp claws and teeth that would make up for anything tiny and fragile looking.

Dave was seriously picking a fight with these guys? Wow. I mean, he must either be really confident or even crazier than I thought.

Despite this petrifying new revelation, I proceeded to walk down many turns and hallways, but afterwards and before I knew it, I was eventually guided into a darkened room. Like something out of one of those criminal shows I was placed in a seat, arms still tied and everything, as a spotlight was dropped on top of me. I blinked a few times, attempting to gain sight back, before I saw North Wind standing in front of me, glares and everything expressed to show how angry they were.

_Yikes._

"You are being interrogated for your crimes," the wolf stated. I wanted to unleash a sarcastic remark but refrained for the sake of… you know, not getting my ass kicked.

The wolf took out a notepad and a pen and then proceeded up towards me. The others were ever vigilant, in between the dark and spotlight, peering out like faces plastered on a black wall. I felt myself shiver as I looked over them, but once the wolf stood before me I focused my attention on him. He was just as intimidating though, if not more so than his friends in the background.

"Now then, shall we get started? You are hereby under the custody of North Wind. Anything you say can and will be used against you in your punishment. Is that clear?"

"Uhhhh…" I couldn't believe this so I just responded like a freaking slug or something. I was actually being freaking interrogated for doing criminal acts! Shit!

"I'll take that as a yes.” The wolf proceeded to write something on his notepad before he started talking again. "What do you know about David's plans?"

With his question I could only think about the consequences that might be bestowed upon me. Even before I unleashed my answer I contemplated about how badly telling them what I knew would hurt Dave, but realizing that they probably already knew, especially since Dave was using the same plan as before, it wouldn't hurt to be honest.

"He's using his Medusa Serum to turn penguins into monsters," I replied. "That's honestly all I know. I'm… just his assistant." I kept eye contact to make sure they saw I was being honest. Though despite this they treated me the same as they had been. Their silence, and the wolf's overly casual persona, made it difficult to speak, but not impossible.

"I see…" the wolf said. He wrote more things down on his notepad before continuing. "Now then, Kailey… if that's even your name."

"Yes, it _is_ my name," I reassured him.

"We're not here to be lied to. Tell us who you are. You're an octopus in disguise as well, that's no doubt."

"An octopus?" My brows wrinkled in confusion as I tried to comprehend what he was accusing me of. "I'm not an octopus."

"I'll admit. Your disguise is rather convincing, as opposed to your fiancé's, but still, I can see straight through your deception."

"I swear to God, I'm not an octopus. You… I don't even know your name!" My voice grew a little loud that time. I couldn't believe this.

"My name is classified."

"Wait—your name is Classified? As in like… for real?"

"No, my actual name is c _lassified._ " He looked annoyed for a second before turning to his team behind him. "Short Fuse, bring me the taser."

"TASER?!" My eyes grew wide as I let my jaw hang. I watched as Short Fuse brought out a taser, although this taser was more intimidating and horrible, and hand it to Classified.

"If you're not going to tell us your identity, then we'll have to drag it out," Classified threatened.

"I'M NOT A FREAKING OCTOPUS, CHRIST!" I yelled while he walked up to me, eyeing the taser as if it were a gun. "GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME! BACK THE HELL OFF!"

Regardless of my cries, Classified turned on the switch and ignited the electrical currents in the device. I felt my heart start pounding as a fight or flight response took on. Although I was restrained in the chair with my arms tied, I kicked out of pure desperation. This didn't seem to faze Classified one bit, and despite my violent retaliation, he managed to get to my face regardless. I saw the taser grow closer to my neck before Eva spoke up.

"I think she's telling the truth," Eva said. "She's no octopus."

"How can you be sure?" Classified answered and lifted the taser from me. I let out a gigantic sigh of relief once I found I was out of that situation. Thank God.

"Yes, I'm sure," Eva responded then. I saw Classified, Corporal, and Short Fuse look back and forth between each other, obvious conflict arising in their eyes, before Classified managed to speak.

"She's a _human_." Classified let that revelation slip from his mouth as if shocked. This caused the others to gasp, as Classified then tried to think of what to do next. "This changes everything."

"What would Dave want with a human? That's breaking code!" Short Fuse gasped.

"It's a long story,” I put in. "You see, I was in a public bathroom at the airport when—"

"David broke code..." Classified interrupted me, obviously still shocked by their findings.

"What are we going to do?" Corporal asked. It took a moment but an answer soon followed.

"We will use Kailey as leverage against David. Hopefully, we can make an exchange for the pengwings." Classified placed his notepad down and in return raised a claw to his muzzle inquisitively.

Ha, 'pengwings'.

"But… we're making contact with a human!" Short Fuse continued to protest. "She knows now! About us! What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Classified admitted. "If only there was a way to wipe her memory. I suppose we're just going to have to keep her under watch after all this is over."

Wait— _there isn't a way to erase my memory?_ Dave, you little turd! But, seriously. Wow. Like, I had been worried the entire time I was going to be horribly tortured, and that was completely possible up until this point. Just because I was a human they were going to go easy on me? I was confused. Didn't they just imply beforehand that I had committed crimes and was to be punished? Was me being human really such a big deal?

Trying to think of it in their perspective, perhaps this was a big deal, solely because I was one of the first, if not _the_ first human to make this kind of contact. North Wind, obviously being law abiding good guys, must be strict with this, so of course they were going to protect this code any way they could. Although to be honest, I thought they were just avoiding the inevitable. It was a surprise they were able to keep this entire species divide a secret for so long anyway.

"We will call David and attempt to make a deal," Classified explained aloud. "Hopefully he will cooperate as I hope."

"And if he doesn't?" Eva asked.

"He'll come for her. He has too. If I know anything about David other than his hatred for the pegwings is that he loves people. And it looks like he's only got one that loves him back." Classified was a little bitter when he talked about Dave. I mean, I understood he must be angry with him being a criminal and all, and obviously his enemy, but geez. That was harsh. No wonder Dave hated these guys.

"All right, move her to the conference room. We'll make contact with David and execute our plan," Classified commanded. This caused Corporal to move towards me and untie me, then begin to escort me out of the room.

Although I was being lead out with the same level of urgency, North Wind's _state_ of urgency had shifted. I wasn't being looked at entirely as a hated villain, but a human caught up in a mess that I wasn't supposed to be a part of. I didn't really know if this was a good thing or what, because if things worked out their way, not only would Dave be taken out, but I'd be forever 'looked after' by North Wind after everything was said and done. And I really didn't want that to happen. Especially the former. I didn't want Dave to be beaten by these guys because of me.

We walked in silence for a good few minutes before we reached another room. This was a conference-like room, with chairs and a table sitting before a large, flat computer screen. I recognized it as the one Dave had called in before where Short Fuse had answered, and eventually we got hung up on when Eva came into the picture.

"All right, Eva, would you initiate contact with David?" Classified asked as he, along with Short Fuse and Corporal behind him, waited for the call to go through.

I felt my legs wobble as Eva fluttered over towards the controls, and began typing something into the monitor that triggered a call to begin hailing Dave. A black screen remained despite the call, making Classified sigh worriedly as he kept his gaze sternly on the monitor.

"Call again," Classified ordered. I could see that North Wind was starting to get on their toes, though I, on the other hand, was glad Dave wasn't answering. As much as I wanted to be saved, I didn't want to put him at risk because of me. It didn't feel right.

"He's not answering…" Short Fuse said in a matter-of-fact sort of tone.

"Just wait!" Classified was growing impatient, but despite his outward expression of this emotion it didn't help. The screen remained black, and before we knew it, the call was ended due to no one picking up.

"Why isn't he answering?" Corporal asked, this time showing his worry in the situation.

"This is preposterous!" Classified huffed again. "We get one open shot to get back the captive pengwings, but David doesn't answer _our_ call? Before he wouldn't stop in his pursuits to get our attention!"

Suddenly, the slick black screen started to seize with static. Everyone quickly looked from amongst themselves and towards the screen, with all seriousness returning once again. After a few seconds, the static ceased, and there on the screen were Dave's red eyes glaring at North Wind with all the hatred and disdain in the world. His glare even frightened _me_ a little.

After this stare, Dave drew back then, and started laughing. Only… the sound was missing. And he was completely unaware of it. I found myself cringing from embarrassment, and the longer this went on, I began to realize that he still had no idea the sound was off.

"David." Classified looked almost tired as he tried getting his attention. "David! The sound is not on again; put the sound on!"

Dave stopped laughing, his gaze shifting around the group as he then quickly put on his glasses and looked closer at the screen. He struggled for a moment, before we could finally hear him.

"Okay, sorry about that, how about now?" Dave asked.

"Yes, it works," Classified responded, again tiredly.

"Ah, excellent. Anyways, now where was I? Oh yeah! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Classified placed a paw on his face as the others took in a gigantic sigh. Apparently Dave had done this before, which was kinda sad if you thought about it. I get he was trying to be intimidating but this just ruined it.

Though at the same time I _did_ think it was pretty cute. Wait—cute? You've got to be kidding me, I thought he was cute? _Stawwwwpppp_ _!_

"So we finally speak, huh North Wind?" Dave continued to smile as he looked down at us, taking notice of me rather quickly. "I see you have my assistant."

"Yes! We have your assistant David! We wish to make an exchange for her safety." Classified stepped in and took the opportunity swiftly to attempt his plans. "We will return Kailey in exchange for the pengwings you have kidnapped."

"Oh? You think that you have the upper hand; is that it?" Dave asked sarcastically. "I'd double check yourself before you go around trying to fool me."

 _BOOM_ _!_ Suddenly, and without warning, a loud explosion went off somewhere in the facility. This instantly triggered an alarm as red lights flashed in the room, and apparently throughout the entire base. Someone started speaking in an intercom that transmitted through the building.

"Deck 1, 2, and 4 is on fire! I'm shutting it off! Everyone stay calm. Be prepared to initiate the evacuation sequence!"

"You see, North Wind. I'm in control. You think for less than a second otherwise, then you're dead." Dave was actually being super intimidating now. And not just because something just freaking exploded.

"What's going on? There is no indication of a break in whatsoever," Eva stuttered aloud, apparently shocked that Dave somehow managed to strike at the base.

"How did you find us, David?" Classified's voice was getting urgent now, completely contrasting with how calm he had seemingly carried himself before.

"Look, that doesn't matter now, does it? All you need to know is that I have you all in my grasp, and attempting to escape is useless." Dave's smirk was crooked as he looked amongst North Wind, his rather intimidating speech having a hint of excitement in it. Despite his attempts at being as serious as he could be, I could tell he was actually enjoying this. "There is another wave of explosives currently prepared to go off if you don't listen to _exactly_ what I tell you."

"Sir?" Eva asked, "What do you vant us to do?"

For the first time since I met North Wind, particularly Classified, I finally saw what they looked like when they were cornered and without option. Their base, their home basically, was literally being threatened, and their plans were being torn to shreds right in front of them. Any chance of fighting back seemed useless, since obviously they had no information on where Dave even was at this point. He was literally acting like a ghost. They couldn't see him, and didn't know where he even came from.

"Do as he says," Classified surrendered, despite his pride. I could tell he desperately wanted to fight back, but by doing so he would put the rest of the base at risk. Thousands of other members of North Wind were in here. This was seriously on level with like crazy supervillain shit that I've never seen outside of movies. I'd never consider myself a fan of this kind of thing, but Dave was _really_ kicking it today.

Like, damn. I hadn't been smiling before, but I was then. Despite my attempts to seem calm and composed, I was smiling up at Dave. I felt my heart flutter like, I don't even know what the hell was happening to me. Dave was seriously rescuing me, and doing it as badass as he possibly could. Like, I cannot describe how utterly… flattered I was. If that's even the right word to use.

"Excellent," Dave said as he gathered two tentacles up in front of him and clasped them together. "Now then, I will be sending a drone to pick Kailey up at your front entrance. Hand her over without any issues, and I'll spare your base."

If Classified could sweat I'm pretty sure he would have. Instead he was slightly panting, which caught the attention of the other three and caused them to become anxious themselves.

"We'll take her up together, Sir," Eva stated, attempting to provide some support in what was an urgent situation for them. I watched as Classified gave another deep sigh before he responded to Dave.

"We'll have her up in five minutes," he said.

"Perfect!" Dave giddily responded. "And remember: no funny business, or those bombs go off." The screen cut off then, leaving us among the constant sounding of the alarm and red flashing lights.

. . . . . . .

We reached the top entrance where we had initially come in. The large landing port that was built for oncoming aircraft made me feel insignificant as I stood on it, and even more so as I looked outwards onto the open, blue, frozen sea before us.

Classified, Eva, Corporal, and Short Fuse stood behind me, waiting and watching for Dave's drone to come and get me. Even while I stood with my back to North Wind, however, I could still feel their urgency. It also didn't help that despite that we were out of the main base area, I could still hear the sirens in the distance; this acted like a constant reminder of how dangerous a situation these guys were in.

Quite honestly I didn't think that Dave was capable of this kind of intimidation, but boy was I wrong. I mean—I knew he didn't like to 'kill anyone', since he had stated that countless times, but I guess North Wind was an exception. Then again, maybe he was bluffing about that second wave of explosions, who knows what the hell Dave had up his sleeve at any given moment. I just was set on getting the heck out of there a.s.a.p.

"Here it comes," Short Fuse pointed out. Just as his sentence ended, I saw a drone fly towards the base. Everyone held their breath as it drew in close, and then settled in front of the opening of the base. Once its doors opened to finally invite me inside, I felt as if North Wind's eyes were starting to push my back as their way to tell me to leave.

I didn't want to stay here a second longer anyway, so I dashed forward and got into the pod. Once inside I was quickly zipped into the sky and flown away from North Wind's base for a few miles before I finally saw where Dave actually was. Although I had to rub my eyes a few times before I managed to finally make out what he had done.

Before me was small a squadron of aircraft, each colored in the same violet shade as his submarine. Leading them, and stationed in a hover high above the ocean water, was obviously Dave's aircraft. It matched the others, but instead adorned his logo on the bow. It looked super complex and like nothing I had ever seen before engineering-wise, so everything about the situation I was in had now escalated in urgency tenfold.

I waited for the drone to bring me next to Dave's aircraft, then it locked onto a lower deck. Once it opened, I ran into the ship, looking around for the doorway to where the cockpit must be. I decided to follow a set of stairs, which proved to be the right way, and entered the cockpit area. Dave was sitting among the controls and glaring out of the windshield before he turned to face me. This glare quickly melted once we made eye contact.

"Kailey!" Dave gasped as he sat up, but didn't leave his seating completely. "Please, take a seat next to me and put your seatbelt on."

"What the—WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON, DAVE?" I finally had to fuss at him. As happy as I was that he had rescued me I now was growing worried.

"You didn't really think I would not come to rescue you unprepared, did you?" Dave asked. "Besides, I'm not here to play tag with North Wind. I'm here to destroy them."

"Destroy them?!" I gasped.

"Yes! Destroy them! Like I told you before! They're in my way, and I finally need to take care of them!"

My eyes grew wide as I slunk into my seat. "But you literally just told them you were going to _not_ blow them up if I was returned safely!" I didn't want to fight Dave about this, but it was just dawning on me how serious of a situation I was in. "So… we're going to… blow them up? Seriously?" I asked.

"I lied. And yes, precisely," Dave acknowledged, then started to speak into an intercom.

"All right, gentlemen, I'm going to trigger the second series of bombs. Wait for my command to proceed forward."

"BLOW THEM UP?!" I uncontrollably screeched again, as if my mind was still trying to process what was happening. How on earth Dave got bombs inside the facility in the first place was a marvel, but at that time I wasn't concerned about the details.

"Kailey, dearest, please calm down. I know this is probably… out of your comfort zone..."

"OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE?!" I yelled again. "I'M IN A DAMNED SHIP ABOUT TO BLOW SOMEBODY UP!"

"I know, I know, please don't freak out." Dave was trying his best to comfort me, but I could tell he was way too focused right now to do much about it. I could only watch him as he reached forward and started pressing a few buttons, then sit back.

"Well, there ya go. It happened," he said. "Now was that so bad?"

I couldn't see the explosion, but just knowing that it happened got my heart racing again. "You… actually did it?" I stuttered.

"Yep," Dave responded. He was trying to be calm with me, but regardless, no matter how gently he talked to me it still wouldn't shake the fact that he had just started a sequence that _blew North Wind's headquarters up_. “All right, proceed forward, and keep an eye out. There could still very well be evacuees," Dave warned. I then felt the ship shift from its stationary hovering position and start flying forward, and quickly.

As the North Wind base came into view it didn't look like much from the outside. However, as time passed, and by checking out Dave's monitors, there were indeed evacuees like he had anticipated.

Under the water there were apparently a few small subs that were getting away, although they weren't much of a threat. It wasn't until a few jets and ships slipped from the main entrance, escaping the flames as the base opened, did Dave suddenly become serious. One of the ships was the one owned by Classified and his team.

Dave growled as his teeth clenched together. "Back me up!" he commanded into the intercom.

I felt the aircraft shift again, and suddenly machine gun fire came from behind us. I held onto the arms of my chair as we sped forward after Classified and his team while Dave's henchmen took care of any ships that decided to fight back, and made sure the base was going down.

"Shit!" I gasped again. There was no holding in my fear, really. How _could_ I hold in my fear? I was in the middle of a freaking sky battle for Christ's sake!

Dave was gaining up on Classified's ship then, when he started to shoot at them. I literally could not believe my eyes, he was _shooting at them_. A good set of bullets got the back thrusters of their ship, causing it to wobble, but it didn't do much to completely stop it just yet.

"This is too easy!" I Dave chuckled. "My plans are going exactly as I want! There is no stopping me! My revenge will be set in stone soon enough!"

However, bursting his bubble rather quickly, Classified's ship took a tight left turn, causing Dave to loose aim. The decision Classified made to escape Dave's fire was a surprise to me as well, so we both stared out of the windshield where Classified's ship was moments before as if dumbfounded. It was only when our fire was returned with hits of their own did I start screaming again.

"Turn the ship around!" I yelled. "Fight them back!"

Dave was panicking as he tried to steer and work the controls. "I'm working on it!" he yelled back.

Dave managed to turn around and get North Wind in sight again, but before he could get in a decent hit, the enemy ship deterred once more, escaping our line of fire.

"Dave, what are you doing!?" I continued. I didn't know a thing about flying a regular, human airplane, but by watching Dave pilot I thought I had a decent grasp on what was going on. "Do you want me to freaking drive?!"

"I got this!" Dave said. He spun the ship around again, getting North Wind in sight once more and began to fire. I could see smoke building up on one of their thrusters, but it didn't seem to stop them from attempting to get away from us.

In an attempt to get space in between us, North Wind launched forward in a speedy thrust, gaining distance rather quickly across the sea. In response Dave did the same and followed them. We were making pace quick then, completely leaving the main battle and other escaped North Wind members. This extremely fast flight went on for a while before Classified's ship did the strong turn once again, though due to our speed breaking the sound barrier and sending what I could only describe as a screeching _whoosh_ sound our way, which caused me to cover my ears.

"Dave, turn the ship!" I yelled. "Turn it now!"

All of the sudden, and like the boom of thunder, North Wind sent a powerful set of cannonball-like missiles our way. It happened so quickly, but once the missiles hit, a powerful screech filled my ears, along with a flash of fire set before my eyes. Within an instant, much like flicking off a light switch, everything went dark.


	11. Odds Are Long

I faintly recalled being moved around, but those moments of semi-wakefulness were so caught up in a blur, and very much shrouded in my in-and-out state of consciousness, that I honestly don't remember. The very next thing I do remember happening though was my body's way of overreacting when I _did_ regain consciousness.

_"Kailey! Kailey wake up! Oh geez, wake up, please!"_

Dave's voice, for the first time in… well, I don't know, a long time, unleashed genuine concern. It was the only thing that welcomed me as I awoke. After sound filtered back into my wakeful state, sight soon followed, although slowly, as I was able to make out my surroundings at a minimal at first. There was a blinding light, obviously the sun, though blocking out its rays and standing directly above me was Dave.

As my eyes further adjusted, and my wakening state was coming to, I realized he was extremely close to my face. It took a few more seconds for me to tell what was going on, but as soon as I did realize what was about to happen I flipped my shit.

As if to prepare for some sort of poorly performed resuscitation technique, Dave's mouth puckered in attempts to come up to my own. Instead of allowing this to happen my fist ended up landing on his mouth instead in another punch, causing him to flail backwards, shocked at first, but once he scurried back onto all eight tentacles he was very much relieved, seemingly ignoring the hit to his face.

"I FEEL LIKE SHIT!" I yelled as I tried sitting up. I immediately felt a wave of all the crap I must had gone through while I was out. The right upper side of my head felt like it had a knot in it, while my body shivered from not only what I could describe as shock, but from being cold, too. It must have been at least fifty degrees outside, which in Texan standards was chilly, _especially_ for the summer. Among those things I felt very fatigued. It took quite an amount of effort to even sit up correctly, and stay sitting up for that matter.

I started looking myself over then. Other than being slightly wet and powdered with ash from the fire, I was okay. Which was a total shock because WASN'T I JUST IN A LITERAL AIRPLANE CRASH WHAT THE HELL?!

"What's going on!? Where are we!?" I gasped, soon a delayed panic coming on as I took in my surroundings. We were on a beach, though instead of sand dunes and cutesy beach houses like I'd normally see, there were mountains in the distance covered in snow, along with large pine forests just before the mountains, and to our immediate vicinity. The only thing that stood out was the pod I had initially got in when Dave retrieved me from North Wind. It was settling in the sand and became buried in the oncoming waves as they crashed around it.

"Kailey, dearest, please settle down. You really need to calm down!" Dave, in the first time in forever I think, tried to genuinely comfort me. He tried to come close to me again, but my constant flailing from panic steered him off at first.

"What happened!?" I gasped again. Before I managed to try and sit up, Dave scurried over and wrapped a few of his tentacles around me to hold me down, while at the same time holding my upper torso up for me as I continued to struggle to stand.

"You need to calm down first," he stated, but gently for my sake. I placed a hand on my head then, reaching around to make sure I wasn't gushing blood or anything. When I found that the bleeding was minimal, I started to calm down.

"Dave… what happened? Why are we out here?" I tried making my sentence clear that time, which gave him the signal that I had myself under control.

"North Wind shot cannons at our ship's front leftward thruster, and caused a chain reaction into the engine. We caught fire, but I managed to get you and I into the pod before it hit the ocean."

_I was so glad I was unconscious through all of that._

"Then what?"

"I managed to steer us toward land, though in the process I had to separate ourselves from my henchmen. I regret to say North Wind got away, but we were successful in destroying their base."

Just then, and uncontrollably, I reached forward and gave Dave the biggest hug I think I ever managed to give before. I'm pretty sure he tensed up, obviously from surprise, but I didn't care. I had never been so thankful to be alive, and to be saved by Dave for that matter. He literally saved me from the flames of death. I cannot describe to you how absolutely thrilled that made me.

"Thank-thank you…" I stuttered. "But, how did you find me? How did you find North Wind's base? I thought you said you had no idea where they were?"

Dave's teeth clenched together as he let off an awkward smile. I didn't know it right then and there, but I would soon find that he was expressing guilt. "Well… I errr. You see. Hmm. How do I put this?"

"Dave?" I gave him a stern look like a mom would do if they called out their kid for screwing something up.

"Your ring. It's not actually… a ring."

I stared at him for a moment longer, as my brain slowly processed what he just told me. I found myself lifting my left hand upward and in front of my face to get a better look at the ring on my finger. As I stared, all the fatigue and discomfort was replaced once again with fury.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN? IT'S NOT A REAL RING!?" I hollered. I swatted a backward bitch slap at Dave, making sure the metal from the ring got his face, and then I kicked him in between the tentacles. He fell over and backed off with a groan as I scurried to my feet, tearing the ring from my finger to stare at it more intensely than I had ever done before.

"Kailey, look, I can explain!" Dave pleaded as he attempted to regain his composure from the kick.

It literally did nothing to settle my emotions, however. Instead of turning around and attempting at reason, I took the ring, which was so obviously _a_ _freaking mother shitting tracking device_ , and threw it into the water.

" _UHHHH_!" I huffed as I made the throw, making sure to give it all I could to express my disappointment in exaggerated sounds and groans. I watched it fly through the air then plop somewhere into the waves. "You… used me. Like _bait_!" I yelled. "And you gave me a ring that's not even _real_?"

Anger was suddenly beginning to take over, drowned with a shattering heart. I honestly to God thought that ring was real, and to know that it was a shit tracking device that Dave made me wear so he could find North Wind was horrific.

"It was the only way to find North Wind!" Dave tried to continue to plead his case before he ceased, only when I fell onto my knees and started sobbing.

I was facing away from him at this point, and I kept my face buried in my hands to further avoid any contact with him. I was mad, yes, but also extremely embarrassed. I hated it when this happened. I despised it when I let people see me cry, but I couldn't control it this time. I had just been in a freaking plane crash, and just now found out I had been used the entire time.

"I'll get you a real ring, I promise!" Dave fretted.

"I don't want you to get me a ring because you _have_ to!" I sobbed. "That's not how it works!"

"Kailey… Kailey," Dave stuttered, realizing exactly what he had done. After a few moments of silence he tried speaking up again, this time putting meaning into his words. "I'm sorry, Kailey. I'm so, so, so sorry."

Despite his comments I continued crying. How could I have possibly allowed this to happen? Why the hell would I even think that the entire dinner and ring crap was real? Dave was so freaking desperate to find North Wind from the very first day I met him, that it should have been so incredibly obvious that he was just continuing to use me for his stupid ass revenge. But I fell for it. _Why_? I have no idea.

Regardless how I was feeling, however, and what I had gone through up to that point, I was still giving Dave an open ear.

"I knew if I told you what I had in mind you'd be mad at me. I keep these things from you because I know you don't want to do it." He paused again then resumed. "But now I realize that in order for us to be a team I can't keep you from things anymore. I swear to you, I won't keep anything secret from you ever again."

I listened to him walk over to me, still keeping distance, but now standing to my side. It became quiet as he let me cry for some time longer before he spoke up. "I'm a turd," he stated. "I'm a big slimy turd, just like you said. And I don't deserve your company."

With him admitting his screw-up, I parted my hands from my face and looked up at him. When I did, instead of seeing someone trying to connive their way out of another problematic episode like he normally would, he was actually owning up to it. And I could see it in his expression this time. He looked genuinely distraught as he looked down at the sand, his shifting eyes apparently mentally going through what he had done.

I stared at him for a bit longer before he realized I was doing so. When our eyes finally met, I managed to get out a soft smile and wipe away the tears that remained dormant in my eyes. This mutual yet silent understanding signaled between us before he began speaking again.

"I need to get you somewhere safe," Dave then said. "We need find the nearest town. There should be a road somewhere nearby; I saw it when we were flying in."

"Okay…" I responded, willingly but tiredly.

I had cried so hard that the fatigue had returned. I don't know if I was going too easy on him or what, but I always had that trait about me where I tried to forgive people. I mean, my brother was a little shit too and used me quite often, but in that case it was with me buying him food, so that didn't quite live up to this. But even so, Dave's entire state of being seemed to have shifted. He wasn't dismissing my emotions anymore like he normally did, but was expressing guilt in a way I have never seen him do before.

At my acknowledgement of retreating to a safer place, nonetheless, he picked me up, rather easily, and started carrying me up the beach and further into the woods. Eventually we made it to a small highway road, and to our luck, was a sign that pinpointed how far away the walk would be. Although I can't be sure if the walk itself was anything to be thankful about.

"Eight miles to _Homer_ ," I read aloud. "Don't tell me this is like… Alaska or something."

"I'm fairly certain we're in Alaska," Dave responded, though this only made me groan again. Trying to think of it too hard made my head hurt, but the realization that we went from Texas, to somewhere with icebergs, and were currently in Alaska, physically made me tired. I have never traveled this much before. Ever. Like, the biggest trip I ever had was to Hawaii, and that was only once.

God must have been taking pity on me and was giving me extra care then, because we had not been standing there for more than five minutes when I heard the sound of tires traveling on the concrete. After a few seconds I could see a car was coming from way down the highway.

We were saved! Well, kinda. That just brought out another dilemma.

"Dave, we can't let people see you," I said. "As much as I'd like to think people would see… well, an octopus carrying a girl around as a normal thing, they might freak out and call the cops."

I saw Dave trying to think of what to do. He obviously didn't want to be separated from me again, so the option of just letting me get a ride was out of the question. As the car drew ever nearer, he spilled out a plan.

"Let me hide in your clothes," he said, rather seriously, but this just made my mouth drop.

"What the hell you perv! That's gross!"

"Not like, _in_ your clothes, but under your coat!" Dave urged. "Hurry, they're coming! I'll help you walk if I have to. Just try and act normal."

"How is this even possible?!"

"Just do it!"

He placed me down, I managing to stand on two feet for the sake of this plan, and… well, I don't really know how else to describe this… let him crawl into my coat. It was freaking bizarre, like, I knew octopuses could make themselves squishy and small and stuff, but try to imagine this giant octopus cram himself into my coat and disappear. It was the freakiest thing I think I ever witnessed. Not only did I have to watch it though, but he had to position himself, this giant purple octopus I'd like to emphasize, around my tiny, one-hundred and nineteen something pound self, and stick and wrap around me. I don't know how he did it, but from the outside I looked completely normal, with the exception of his head on my upper back making me slightly more hunched looking, but that's it.

"Zip up your coat," Dave said then, though this only made me shiver.

"Don't breathe down my freaking neck." I highly disliked this plan. Though since Dave didn't have a disguise with him what else were we supposed to do?

The car was coming up when Dave stretched two tentacles along both my arms, lifting my arm for me then to get the car's attention. "You need to hitchhike," he said. "Put your thumb up."

"Don't control me like some freaking puppet, you ass," I hissed. I felt him loosen up but he still kept his grip on my arms. Ugh. At least this gave his six other tentacles some room, which were all currently wrapped around my back and waist. "I feel so violated, oh my God. Don't touch anything inappropriate or I'll throw myself onto the concrete."

Just then, a navy blue car pulled up beside us. I kept my eyes on the driver's window, expecting a greeting, when instead the door slammed open, and a woman, maybe a few years older than me, pulled out a gun and pointed it at my face.

"What are you doing out here?" the girl stated intensely. She must have been ex-military or something because she looked tough as nails. Some tattoos crept up her arms with images of lilies, knives, and lightning bolts, which only added to my concern, and the fact that her hands were currently holding onto a weapon was just the cherry on top.

"I'm normal!" I stated loudly, as I put my arms in the air. She stared at me for a moment before she looked around, and finally put the gun down.

"Hmm. Sure you are," she stated sarcastically, but resumed speaking to me like normal afterwards. "Sorry, you can't ever be too careful with hitchhikers now a days."

"Who that?!" An elderly man's voice called from the inside of the car. From the backseat he poked his head into the front to get a better look at what was going on.

"Everything's okay, Granddad," the girl sighed, then returned her attention to me. "You sure looked screwed up, are you okay?"

_Ha! Hahaha! Yes, I'm perfectly fine, random stranger. I totally wasn't just in a plane crash. I'm completely okay._

"Yes," was all I managed to get out, nonetheless. I don't know if she exactly bought it though. Her brow rose suspiciously as she looked me over, though despite her hesitation with my truthfulness she decided to help me out instead.

"We're heading into town if you need a ride," she invited, although her tone was still serious. "By the looks of it, seems you've been through enough. Say, you look familiar, too. Aren't you that girl that's marrying that geekass scientist dude?"

"You-you mean, Dr. Brine?" I stuttered.

"Yeah, that's it!" She smiled a little. "He seems a little old for you if you ask me. You can't be more than… I don't know, in your mid to late twenties, at least."

"Yeeees," I said through clenched teeth. It was really hard to lie in a way that seemed convincing right now. I was extremely uncomfortable with the fatigue and pulse in my head from the knot, not to mention I had an octopus currently groping my body, so you know. Yay.

"Tell her to get on in here. I'm ready to _eat_ , so I can take my back pill!" the old man in the car said with urgency.

"All right, hold your horses!" the woman said, and placed the gun back in a halter, then covered that with her jacket. "You can sit in the passenger seat. My granddad likes a lot of room so he usually takes the back."

"Thank you," I said sincerely. I gave her another awkward smile before I walked around the car and got into the passenger seat. Afterwards I watched as the girl jumped back into the driver's seat and placed the car in motion. Once we gathered speed she began talking again.

The girl finally introduced herself. "By the way, the name's Rachel. The old guy in the backseat is my granddad, Aaron." Her ways of coming off as kind still had a hint of intensity in them, however.

"Yeah, and you must be… Kailey, right?" the old man then stated from the back.

"That's me," I admitted. I sighed internally from the recognition. I was so used to being pretty much a nobody, so I was still getting used to being 'famous' and stuff.

"Say, what's that hump on yo back?" Aaron pointed out then.

My eyes widened as I tried keeping my gaze looking forward and out the windshield, said, "Uhhh… It's a… errr. A condition. Just gives me a slight hump sometimes, yeah."

"That ain't no slight hump. That looks like a damn beach ball on yo back."

"Granddad, shut up, that's rude!" Rachel spewed out. "You don't just go pointing out stuff like that! What's wrong with you?" She turned her head to face me. "Besides, it's not that big, let alone noticeable. Quit exaggerating."

"Sorry," Aaron huffed as I listened to the old man shuffle in his seat. "What's your condition?"

"Uhhhh…" Shit, I had to lie again. I tried to think of a lie, and quickly. My brain tried to process this request too fast, so I spat out the first mixture of words that slipped my mind. "Oct… Octopitus. It flares up sometimes, but… uhhh, otherwise it goes away completely. It's like I never had it."

" _Octopitus?_ " Aaron repeated, his voice getting higher and louder from apparently not hearing his own voice clearly enough, so the change in tone caught me off guard. "Never heard of that befo— wait, I remember one of my cadets in Vietnam had a hump on his back. I wonder if he had the same thing you had?"

"Who knows." I placed a hand on my head again as I leaned into my arm, attempting to settle my skull from both the slight bumps on the road and this old fart's constant chatter.

"What were you doing out there anyway?" Rachel then added, "and with that condition and all?"

"I was studying clams," I spat out another lie. I was just letting my brain do whatever it wanted at this point. "You know… for science."

"Any news about the penguins?" Rachel asked. "I thought you were trying to save those kidnapped penguins."

"We are!" I tried to recover quickly. "Yes, we are, though it's difficult running a company, doing our research, and now trying to save the penguins."

"You guys are doing good." Rachel's voice seemed to deepen as she stared intensely at the road in front of her once again. "Those poor penguins. There isn't much we can do back home, especially now that I'm on vacation. I'm a police officer from Dallas, you see, so when I heard about these kidnappings and realizing there wasn't much I solely could do to help, it really upset me. I swear… if I find out who's causing those penguins _so much pain!_ "

Her grip on the steering wheel tightened; so tight that the leather cover on the steering wheel started to wrinkle under her palm. I found myself yet again tensing up. That time though Dave did the same thing from under my coat. His shivers only added to my own. Although I can't say if his shivers were from irritation or fear like me, but you know.

"Speaking of…" Rachel calmed down after a few seconds, resuming her calm, yet terrifying outward appearance. "How are you and the geek doing?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You know… it seems you and your fiancé are incredibly busy all the time. How do you make room for personal stuff? Like, romantic crap?"

 _Ugh. Not this again._ I started twiddling my fingers together as I awkwardly looked out my window.

"It's… complicated," was what I got out.

"I'm no expert, but if you want to have a successful marriage you have to make time for just you guys. I know that can be hard with a company and all these expectations on you two, but you gotta try. One day just drop your work and go do something fun, ya know?"

Pfft. Yeah right. I honestly don't think that ever was going to happen. Once we got into town Dave was probably going to call in his henchmen to come pick us up. This current state, with him hugging onto me and hiding under my coat, was literally the closest we were going to get.

I didn't bother trying to answer her. Instead I continued looking out the window. I currently felt like those butterflies were trying to return to my stomach, but before they could actually start fluttering my heart seemed to strain and send electrical currents to kill said butterflies.

Dave apologized, sure. And it looked like he meant it, too. But I was still trying to balance the odds here. What were the odds that Dave actually liked me at this point as I had thought before? Any normal person would tell me that would be very seldom. I mean, he acts like he likes me, very sincerely at times, but the entire incident with finding out the ring was fake still rattled me. Combining all this logic up, it was highly likely he still thought of me as just a simple human assistant.

Yet then again, I did somehow _survive_ a plane crash. I should be dead, honestly. It should have been very unlikely for me to have lived, but I managed to break that unknown percentage of life expectancy. So… I guess the saying goes, maybe odds are long after all.

. . . . . . .

"I'd stay and help you out more, but my granddad is really set on eating sometime soon," Rachel said as she watched me get out of the car. I managed to smile kindly at her, finally finding some relief as I looked to a little hotel just calling my name. It had felt like forever since I saw something so tranquil looking, so I was set on taking a shower and hitting the hay. Dave's stupid ass plans could wait, especially after the debilitating shit he just put me through.

"Thank you so much," I said. "I hope you have a good trip."

"Oh, we will," Rachel chuckled. "My granddad has been wanting to take a trip like this to see Alaska for some time, and the northern lights, so it'll be a treat. You take care too, though."

"Hurry!" I heard Aaron before the windows rolled up, though soon afterwards the little blue car drove off and disappeared around the corner. I stood there for a moment, looking around this pleasant little town, before I reached into my lab coat to make sure I had everything I needed. It was then that Dave seemed to get the same idea.

"Do you have the corporate card I gave you?" he asked.

"Yeah, I have it." I felt any sort of further trouble melt off my shoulders. At least we didn't have to worry about money.

"Good. We'll check in at this place and call for help. If everything goes well we'll be back on track."

I didn't answer him. Instead I started into the hotel, although forgetting just how bad I probably looked. The front clerk immediately noticed the ash on my clothes, along with my messed up hair. She didn't seem to notice the hump on my back like the old guy though.

"Can… can I help you?" she asked. I could tell the lady was concerned but she didn't bother asking too much. Instead I took the time to reassure her everything was all right.

"Just out studying clams. Fell out of the boat, and tried to clean the engine with my coat, but I'm fine."

"Do you want to check in?"

"Yes, that would be nice."

"I can also have your clothes washed for you."

"Yes, great. Wonderful."

I handed her my card and she checked me in rather quickly. It wasn't long before I was given a set of room keys and was allowed to walk up to my new room. I made sure, nonetheless, to shut the door and cut all the blinds before I talked to Dave again.

"Get the hell off of me now. The coast is clear," I said sternly. He came out right afterwards, again his transition into hiding under my coat and returning to his full size right next to me being slightly alarming. But quite honestly, I didn't have enough energy to freak out again.

"I'm going to call in for help," Dave said. He walked over to the telephone and dialed a short number. It rang only a few times before a set of gurgles answered, causing Dave to smile once again.

"Brad, Pitt, I need you to come get us," Dave said. One of the voices started gurgling urgently, while another was trying to be calm. Ultimately the calmer gurgle managed to get the other one to be quiet.

"What do you mean you can't?"

More gurgles.

"Okay, fine. We'll try and meet you guys there."

That was it. Dave hung up the phone, placing a tentacle to his head out of concern as he closed his eyes. I stood there quietly, though without so much as having to ask, Dave started talking anyway.

"They've sent all the choppers out to find some of our downed ships from the fight with North Wind. The submarine is heading this direction, but if we want to get to them faster we'll have to meet them halfway somewhere on the west coast."

"Fine," I stated simply. I was getting tired, and ready for that shower. "Just do what you gotta do. We'll start off in the morning."

"But—we should leave as soon as possible."

" _I_ _said_ , we'll start off in the morning." My physical state didn't become any more or less intimidating, but I had enough energy to put a threatening tone in my voice.

Dave looked me over, his mouth slightly dropped as I turned around and went into the bathroom. He couldn't say any damned thing to me at this point that would make me move any faster, let alone jump right back into his ridiculous plans. For once, I was making the rules. And if I wanted to take a damned shower and freaking sleep my ass off, then that's what I was going to do.


	12. Breakfast Fiasco

**Dave**

We didn't talk much the rest of that night. After settling down she instantly fell asleep, protesting only beforehand that I sleep on the floor.

Kailey's slightly bitter attitude, which at one time I would push off as a regular and recurring thing, was now something that continued to crawl back into my thoughts like persistent burrowing worms. It's been an incredibly long time since I've felt anything remotely close to guilt; all my life up to this point I've been so focused on my revenge that I had to bury feelings like that. Guilt, empathy, among many things, were just a few at the top of that list. But after what I did, especially after seeing her cry, seemed to make those feelings resurface in a quick wave, leaving me trapped in currents of lingering thoughts, which for the first time in years made me start rethinking how I was doing things.

I have to admit, these surges of emotion that I had been suppressing for those many years have been trying to show themselves since I took her in, but it wasn't until now, where I finally had to face them straight on, where it was uncontrollable to avoid them any longer.

It was weird—difficult even, but… almost relieving.

I don't think I slept much myself, but the next morning I felt rested regardless. Once Kailey got up she disappeared back into the bathroom for a while, then returned dressed as she was the night prior, looking as if nothing had happened to her whatsoever. The hotel managed to get the stains out of the lab coat I gave her, along with the rest of her clothes, so that crisp, 'ready to get back to work' look returned quicker than even I had anticipated. That was one thing I really didn't give Kailey enough credit for. Despite the difficult tasks I put her through she showed admirable persistence and durability, even though the strain of these tasks sometimes became evident in her emotions that slipped, which with these said emotions, she wouldn't hesitate to take out on me afterward.

That was understandable, of course.

"I'm going to eat the hotel's free breakfast," Kailey stated. Her ways of talking to me at that time came out as orders, not as suggestions. "I'll be back in a bit."

"Go ahead." I still kept my voice clear and mild. I was trying whatever I could to avoid making her any more uncomfortable than she already was. She took a moment to look herself in the mirror before she responded to me.

"Afterwards we can start around town and see if there's anything for you to wear. Although I highly doubt we'll get you a wig out here." She was trying to get back to business, but I could hear hesitation in her voice. "Also, I heard there's a local airport. We could try and pick the earliest flight towards the west coast."

"Sounds fine to me, dearest," I responded, again, calmly yet friendly. There was a pause before she finally turned from the mirror and walked out the door. It was only after the door shut tight did I find myself letting out a deep sigh, as if I had been withholding myself from breathing properly for some time. Then, as I stood there alone in the room, I approached the mirror myself, and looked hard at my reflection.

As usual, I looked like a bitter old octopus. It had been a while since I've seen my own reflection in an actual mirror, and not just from the faint reflections I got of myself while working with metals to build my many machines, or the black computer monitor when I tried working the webcam. For the first time in a long time, I was facing myself clearly. It was strangely haunting, almost embarrassing, when I saw what I looked like.

Of course, I'd try and find something to blame my discomfort on, and that was the penguins. Looking at myself, I couldn't _help_ but cast all my troubles and blame it on them. They were the ones, after all, that took my joy away. They're the ones that got me kicked out of the Central Park Zoo, setting a chain reaction that would get me kicked out of every single aquarium and zoo from then on. With them around, nobody wanted an old octopus anymore. I would never be looked upon adoringly ever again.

I was what everyone said. I was a _monster_.

"I'll show them," I shivered with anger as I let loose a scowl, this seemingly adding to my already disgruntled appearance in the mirror. "I'll show all those cute, adorable, penguins who RUINED MY LIFE!"

I briefly broke my explosive rant and began pondering more. Everyone said I was a monster… except for Kailey.

Sure, she called me a turd, but that wasn't quite the same thing. I don't think she had called me a monster once since I met her. In fact, the only thing she had really called me straightforward was _cool._

And to think, I made her cry. I set up the only person who thought I was cool, and made her _cry_.

I shook my head then. "It's all part of the plan," I spoke aloud to myself. "She needed to get caught by North Wind. It's because of her that I destroyed their base! I just—just need to be more honest with her. Which I will! I swear I will. I mean, she does like me… at least, I think she does."

Again, I was pausing—soaking in my reflection as my sentence began to trail off. I saw for a brief second my expressions and feelings of hatred melt away and become replaced by… _happiness_.

Happiness? Was that something I was really capable of? Ha! Of course I'm capable of happiness! Once I get my revenge on the penguins I'll be happier than ever! All my life's work will be paid off, and the penguins will get what they deserve! With my new bigger, better plan, which I've called Medusa Serum 2.0, none of them will be spared! After that, I'll go onto kittens, and puppies… _Oh_.

Wait. I can't do kittens. Kailey would get mad at me. _Might need to lay off the kittens_.

Argh! There it was again! I was changing things because of Kailey. But it wasn't something that irritated me, just… something that made me smile. I was actually smiling then, as I looked at myself.

"After my revenge… I'll be happy. And she'll be there with me." I felt my trio of hearts skip then. It was quick, and unexpected, like a surge of electricity. Afterwards, I felt… well, excited. It was an anticipation of that happiness as if it had already become real.

I imagined standing atop my submarine as I looked over the shores of New York City. All my enemies were scurrying about, as the monsters they were, while the humans screamed and ran away from them. But most importantly, Kailey was next to me, smiling adoringly up at me as if I was the world to her. She was the key component to that dream—how I wanted this all to end.

I sighed longingly. I found myself leaning on the counter, staring into the mirror as I propped two arms below my chin to hold my head up. I literally felt as if I could float away.

A knock at the door pulled me from my thoughts, however. I turned around, half expecting it to be Kailey again, when instead a stranger's voice talked as the door opened wide.

"Housekeeping—" said an elder woman, who stopped instantly, with the door opened and everything, as we awkwardly made eye contact. I was like a deer caught in headlights, when suddenly her calm, rather bored demeanor exploded into chaos.

"MONSTER! AHHHHHH!" the old lady yelled, sending urgency spinning into the room at me.

"AHHHHHH!" I screamed. I'm pretty sure that was a bad idea, but she caught me by surprise so badly that I couldn't help but do it. She started scurrying backwards, only to fall over, and toppled backwards even further onto her head. After that, she was out instantly.

 _Did_ _—did anyone see that? Did anyone hear what happened?_

I quickly went towards the door and peeked my head outwards. Looking around, there was nobody in the immediate area, so I assumed I was safe. Quickly, I tried to come up with an idea to get rid of the old lady, and not be seen.

"Oh geez… uhhh..." My gaze slipped to the side of the small parking area. In the upper corners of the parking lot was a large trash can. There were some scattered debris and empty glass bottles around it, but overall it looked okay. I made the decision that I was going to put her by the trashcan. Just… throw her in the trashcan, yeah. That'll work.

I looked around one more time to make sure nobody was around, then I grabbed onto the old lady and scurried over the parking lot, placing her beside the trash. I did anticipate actually throwing her in like I constantly had repeated in my head, but the second my eyes landed on the empty glass beer bottles I decided to prop her up and place a bottle in one of her palms instead.

"Perfect," I hissed through my teeth. This was believable. And she'd probably get fired too, the hag. "Had too long of a drink break, did we?"

I chuckled as I swiped my arms together, as if dusting myself off from a job well done, and started striding back towards the room, when suddenly I heard the screeching of breaking tires and an intensely bright set of headlights hit my side. I was given less than a second to look over and see an old, black Ford truck come spearing at me, and suddenly, painfully, hit me and send me splatting onto the ground.

I didn't pass out, or die for that matter, but I couldn't move. I felt like I wanted to black out, but couldn't. I could only watch, helplessly motionless, as the driver got out of the car.

A set of brown boots hit the moist concrete, followed by urgent chatter. I was half expecting some big redneck to come and start beating me up, when instead a little guy walked from around the corner, eyeing me chaotically as if he was attempting to figure out how he wanted to react.

"What is this!?" he said. He seemed to have a mild Japanese accent. "This is the most giant octopus I've ever seen!"

The guy looked around cautiously, as if to make sure nobody saw him and what he was about to do, then ran over and picked me up. After he picked me up, he tossed me in the back of his truck, ran back into the driver's seat, and ignited the engine.

As he floored it, I realized exactly how dire of a situation I was in right now. I was just run over and was being kidnapped by some stranger. I couldn't possibly think of any scenarios where someone wanted an octopus, let alone one that might as well look like road kill. My brain seemed to scurry over every possible scenario, just as quickly as the lights were passing on the streets, when the truck stomped on the breaks, and we came to a stop.

While I was still shocked from having been hit by a truck, the little guy came back around, took me from the truck bed, and brought me inside a building. I heard the chimes of bells coming from doors being opened when the smell of food caught my attention.

_Seafood._

We passed a small dining hall filled with rusted metal chairs, and disappeared into a kitchen area. Upon being carried inside I was immediately bombarded with the sights and smells of gutted fish. Through my sudden feelings of urgency, I realized that I was being put down on a counter with a struggle, due to my size, before the man stopped to ponder over me and what he thought was a lifeless octopus.

"What should I call the dish…? Oh! I know!" He grabbed a stained paper menu and started scribbling something down. "The dish shall be called Cthulhu! Yes, silly white tourist will love this. It might be hit by truck, but they won't know the difference."

I felt my ability to move slowly start to return, when suddenly I saw the guy pull out a large butcher's knife, along with a giant pot and some spices and flavoring. If I wasn't terrified already, I began to panic then, waiting desperately for my moment to sit up and get out of there. Before the stranger could get to work, however, the chime of the front bells went off. This instantly caught the stranger's attention, and deterred his focus from me and towards whoever came into the restaurant.

"Welcome to Hiroto's! I am Hiroto, the chef. How may I serve you today?" my kidnapper exclaimed cheerfully. He began walking out of the kitchen and disappeared behind the door and into the dining area. Despite that I was now alone, I could hear them easily.

"Yeah, the wife and I saw your place when we drove into town yesterday and wanted to give the place a try. Never had a Japanese breakfast before," one stranger said. His harsh southern Georgian accent clashed with the chef's.

"Please, please sit down! I'd be happy to serve you! Tell me what you want?"

"Something exotic," a woman's voice answered giddily, bearing the same accent as her husband. "Tell me, what's the most interesting dish you serve?"

"Ohhh! Yes, I know exactly what you want. You want the Cthulhu! Fresh, just got it in this morning."

"What is the Cthulhu?" the man asked.

"Fresh, octopus, very fresh! Giant octopus, very big!"

"Oh, I don't know, honey. I'm on a diet, I don't think I can eat a big octopus. Maybe we should eat the cuttlefish instead, or the vanilla paste."

"Don't be silly, Margaret, we're on vacation, go crazy if you want!"

"Ah, yes! Celebrate vacation with fine, best food in town; there is no bad way to go. You eat good food here."

"We'll have that then," the man stated.

"But, honey, it's 300 dollars for that. Are you sure?"

"Like the man said, we're on vacation. Let's enjoy it while we can."

"Ah, yes, your husband is right! Eat good, don't worry!"

I resumed panicking. I realized right then and there that I was about to become somebody's breakfast. I wasn't sure what to do really; I couldn't exactly break code with another human, but my life was on the line here!

The chef came back in, and started sharpening his butcher's knife on a belt. He seemed to chuckle a little, obviously proud of himself for successfully lying to the tourist outside about 'fresh' seafood and selling it for 300 dollars. Which was me. I was on the menu and there was no way I was getting out of this mess without having to fight. I just hope I could take him out quickly enough for the others outside to not notice, and if they did, I'd have to take them out, too. I could avoid breaking code and not speak to them, but there was still the fact that a live octopus was beating them up, so I don't know if that's exactly crossing the line or not.

"Ah, yes… I know just how to serve this. I'll chop you up into very tiny pieces, then boil you to a crisp! Do not worry, octopus, it won't hurt you, 'cause you are dead! Ha!" The chef laughed at his joke, which again just pushed this situation into even more dire territory. I was still gathering my strength while I watched him walk over to the sink and start filling the large pot of water. After a few moments he set the filled pot onto the stove, and ignited a large blue flame beneath it. It would only be a matter of time before things got out of hand.

I was literally prepared to shove this guy's head in that pot of water when another chime of the front door bells went off. Again, this caught the chief's attention, but more or less by surprise this time. He definitely wasn't expecting another customer; the look on his face showed nothing but pure happiness as he sat up, smiling large, then set all the cooking utensils down and started heading back out towards the dining area to greet the new guest.

"Welcome to Hiroto's! I am chef Hiroto! How may I serve you?" He used the same greeting despite that the couple from before was still out there. I half expected to hear another hungry, curious customer, when literally angel choirs sounded off with the response.

"Uh… yeah, I'm looking for an octopus." It was Kailey! Joyous day! I wanted to start crying; I was so thrilled.

With the chef distracted, I finally started attempting to move myself around. I managed to start lifting my arms and my head as I worked my way to a sitting position.

"Octopus?" The chief was confused, obviously perplexed by how Kailey knew he had octopus, though he managed to step right back into business. "Yes! Ah, yes! Just got in an octopus this morning! You are in luck, because I only have enough for one other guest!"

"Oh really?" Kailey's voice was starting to sound as if she were suspicious. I don't know how she found me, or how she managed to stay so suave in this situation but OH GLORIOUS DAY KAILEY'S HERE!

"Yes! This couple here just ordered the Cthulhu dish. I only have one octopus available today. Very big demand, very expensive. Now tell me, how large of a serving would you care for? Somebody of your size might require the small, perhaps?"

"No. Give me the whole damn thing." Kailey's voice was starting to grow in its intimidation factor, but she was suppressing it as to not instantly cause a fight in this interrogation.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I cannot do that. The couple just ordered the Cthulhu dish as well, that would not be fair."

"I said, I want the whole damn octopus!"

"Hey, listen here little lady, we just ordered some of that and are spending good money for it. Don't be a pig!" the Georgian man from before stepped in.

"Harland, please!" the wife started pleading urgently. "There's no need to fight. We can always eat something else."

"No! I will not stand for this!"

"Back off, Rick Grimes, or I'm going to get nasty. I'm hungry as shit, and I want to eat that whole damn octopus, you hear me! IT'S MINE!" That had to be the point Kailey lost her patience. I dealt with it so often myself that it was obvious now.

"Let's go, Harland… This isn't worth it."

A pause filtered between the growing hostile situation, when the man sighed. "Fine. Let's go somewhere else. I don't want to be in the same room with this girl."

The sound of chairs moving and chimes sounded off, obviously the couple leaving from Kailey's fuss. Honestly, I didn't know she was capable of being this violent in dialogue, but of course, it probably had to do with how I was about to die. _Ahhh, I knew she cared._

I finally managed to sit up all the way then. I stretched my arms out and moved them around, testing my mobility first, then sat up and started walking to the front of the kitchen. I peeked out the door to get a better look at what was going on, when I caught Chef Hiroto seating Kailey at one of his tables.

"Octopus is very expensive, are you sure that you can afford the entire thing?"

"I don't care," Kailey sighed. Her anger often wore her out and I could see that now.

"How do you want it cooked? I was going to make it into my fine recipe."

"No, I want it raw," Kailey stated. "Raw and alive."

Chief Hiroto's eyes widened, now perplexed, yet surprised by the demand. "Raw… I don't know if I can do raw." I saw him start mildly tapping his foot on the ground, probably attempting to hide the fact that he still considered me road kill, so serving me raw would be bad.

"Serve him raw or I'll leave. And it doesn't look like you're going to get any more customers anytime soon, so I suggest you listen to me." Kailey played a really good manipulation card there. And to think she didn't consider herself villainous. Please, she was more than capable. Ah, what a lady, am I right?

"Okay, okay! Err, for whole octopus it will be 600 dollars."

"600 dollars!?" Kailey's voice heightened dramatically as she slammed her hands on the table. "When in hell does octopus cost 600 freaking dollars? You've got to be kidding me!"

"If you can't pay then you don't get food." The chef's eyes narrowed sarcastically, in a mocking sort of manner. "No pay, go home."

Kailey lost it. I saw her swiftly stand up, knocking the chair behind her, and her hands grabbed the collar of the chef's shirt. She shook him slightly before finally unleashing her angry sentence. "Look! I know you stole my octopus, now give him back!"

"Stole your octopus?" the chef's eyes widened again. "I never did such a thing! I found this octopus fair and square! It's mine!"

"YOU'RE A LIAR!"

If this situation wasn't out of hand already, then it was about to be. I realized that if I didn't want a fight to break out between these two then I had to do something. As admirable as Kailey's actions were, her intimidation factor wasn't quite working on the chef anymore. He could very well hurt her, or even have the cops called on her. It was time that I reacted, and fast.

"That's it!" Chef Hiroto cried. "I work too hard for this! I'm calling the police!" He swiped her hands to the side, rather easily, then pushed her down. I saw this in itself catch Kailey off guard as the guy walked towards the kitchen, apparently heading there to dial the police.

I stood my ground at the door, making myself as big and intimidating as I possibly could. Once Chef Hiroto opened the door, he instantly stalled, looking up at me, at first calmly, though his reaction slowly bubbled into fear.

"THE OCTOPUS LIVES?!" he yelled. I don't think I can quite describe just how serious this was, let alone how terrified he looked. I couldn't help but smile down at him, giving him my trademark grin.

"You're going to pay for this," I stated. The mere idea of me speaking flipped him out. He started trying to run backwards when he slipped and fell, and much like the old lady from before, hit his head on the ground and passed out. I didn't have to lay a single arm on him. He seemed to take care of himself rather nicely.

"Dave!" Kailey gasped from the dining room. She sat up quickly and ran over to me, without so much as a further greeting, and pulled me into another big hug. I couldn't help but hug her back this time. I made sure to hold her just tightly enough to show her how happy I was, but also not to strangle her like I did the very first time we embraced like this.

"Dave—Dave, what happened!?" Kailey pulled away after a few seconds, again, concern coming through. "I came back from breakfast and saw our door was wide open, and there were people surrounding the trashcan in the parking lot. They found some old lady lying unconscious, and then I noticed your goo all over the concrete and—and I was worried!"

"Everything's all right, dearest!" I tried to respond giddily to reassure her everything was okay. "The old lady… well, she walked in on me, and then I got hit by a truck, and then I got kidnapped by this guy…"

"You got hit by a truck!?" Kailey gasped. "And somebody saw you? Two people now?!"

"Hey, it's all right. Nobody is going to believe that old lady, and this chef isn't going to get far either. Nobody will believe him, I promise."

Kailey dived back into me, taking me into another hug. "You scared the shit out of me! I thought—well… I thought you left me again."

"No! No never!" I felt my hearts beat in a domino sort of fashion, quickly as if they were catching up to a regular rhythm. Following that, a mixture of guilt overcame me, this acting as reminder of what I did before. "I would never leave you again," I ensured. "I promised you at the beach that we'll be a team, and that promise is still valid. I swear it."

She was quiet, staying in the hug for a few minutes longer before she pulled away to look up at me. She managed to break a soft smile before Hiroto on the floor grunted, apparently waking up.

"We might need to leave," she stated. "We can order those plane tickets and get out of here. What do you say?"

"That sounds perfect to me," I responded. I smiled back, softly to try and match hers, but I don't think my smile could ever compare to Kailey's.

I don't think _anything_ could.


	13. Road Rage

"I don't think this is going to work," I stated nervously as we approached the security checkup at the airport. The airport here was small and relatively quiet as opposed to the ones I was used to, but it still had the large security check just like any other, so of course I was going to be nervous going through it. Especially since, once again, I had an octopus in my jacket.

"You don't have any luggage, so don't worry about it. Just act normal. It's not like they're going to stop you. Maybe for autographs, but that's expected." Dave yet again was acting as a pillar of confidence for me. He was sure of the situation, but I couldn't help but think of something going wrong.

Security was hardcore in airports. If you so much as had a tiny bottle of shampoo that was too big in ounces, they'll force you to throw it away. Not to mention they made you take your freaking shoes off, seriously, what the hell does that accomplish?

"What if they do a pat down, or, I don't know, see you in the X-ray thing?" I shivered from the thought.

"Those things only check for metals," Dave tried to reassure me. "It's not like you're carrying a bomb or something. Now go ahead and get in the line."

I tried to relax as I took in a deep breath and contemplated how I was going to present myself. A soft smile and a greeting would work. They wouldn't be suspicious of me if I were nice.

"Next," the lady in the front said stoically. Her eyes only looked up to see me come towards the check-in line. I set my shoes on the conveyer belt and watched them go through before she started talking again. "Okay, now stand in the center of the machine above the red dot, and keep your hands and feet shoulder-width apart."

I smiled at her, completely ignoring my plans to greet her, however, and walked to the center of the dot. I could hear the machine start to scan me as the lady looked at the screen from behind the counter.

Before anything happened, as far as I could tell, I recalled my mother joking with me about this kind of situation. I had just graduated high school, when she told me that when I took my trip to Hawaii that one time, these things supposedly see you naked. I didn't believe her, of course, but despite my denial of that I suddenly felt exposed. What happened next just shattered my ability to stay calm.

"Ma'm, would you please step aside?" the lady said, still stoically, but her brow rose as she looked at the monitor. With me being unable to see it I only started to freak out more.

"Wh—what seems to be the problem?" I asked. My heart started racing as I hesitantly walked out of the machine and up to the woman. Her serious expression remained as she let me look at the screen along with her.

"Can you tell me what that is?" Her stoic tone had a hint of suspicion in it, but overall was hard to make out due to me currently about to explode from nervousness. Surprisingly, I was able to suppress any outward expression of fear.

"Uhhh…" I didn't know what to say. I looked at what was obviously an X-ray shot of me with my hands up in the air, and around me, faintly in the black and white format, was Dave's tentacles wrapped around my body. I felt my face turn red then, this uncontrollable in all respects at that time. "It's—it's uhh…" I kept stuttering. Shit, I was blowing it! _Again!_ She probably thought this was a bomb or something! Why else would she pull me to the side!? Next thing I know I'd have cops all around me to tear off my jacket and expose Dave, then what was I supposed to say then?!

"Ma'm, I'm going to have to—" The lady started to speak before I bluntly interrupted her, able to spit out my lie quickly in order to save myself.

"It's lingerie!" I gasped, as I felt the red in my cheeks dissipate into the rest of my face. My eyes shifted quickly from the screen and to the security lady, our gazes meeting as I awkwardly stared at her, expressionless, and waited for a response.

She looked at me hard for what seemed like eons. I didn't know what to say, so instead I forced myself to smile awkwardly at her, clenching my teeth hard as to not allow them to chatter. _God, this was so freaking awkward! Why do I always get in these kinds of situations now!?_

"I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going." Her response was so blunt and without humor that all the blood in my face returned to my cheeks, causing my eyes to widen then. I managed to keep my desperately fake smile glued to my face, though.

"Move along, now," the lady finally stated after watching me freeze, melt, and do it over again. I grabbed my shoes and awkwardly slipped them back on before I started walking towards the flight areas, only walking faster as I made progress to put distance between me and the security lady. After a few yards of walking was when Dave spoke up again.

"What was that she said? What's hentai?" Dave's way of asking came out to me as being so incredibly naive and innocent, that I found myself swallowing hard from embarrassment.

"It's nothing!" I stated. "Nothing to worry about."

"Should I Google that too, or…?"

"DO NOT!" I shouted that time, causing people to turn heads to look at me. As they stared I waved shyly at them, attempting to regain composure as to not let them assume I was a freak or something. "Please, do not Google that, for the love of God." I tried whispering again that time.

"Flight to Sacramento, California, departs in fifteen minutes. All passengers report to check in." The announcement came as a relief as I avoided the conversation from progressing further.

I started walking to the front, got in line, proceeded into the plane like normal, then took my seat. It was pretty straightforward from that point, as I buckled my seatbelt and everything, listening to the flight attendant start to talk. As the minutes passed I tried relaxing, looking out the window at the little Alaskan town in the distance, and tried to set my attention on what was going to happen.

Dave's henchmen were on their way with the submarine and would meet us on the west coast. Sacramento was the first flight we could get in that general direction, so we'd have to drive the rest of the way to the coast. It didn't seem like too big of a deal. Soon, I'd be back in a relatively familiar and comforting place, and we could put this whole crashing from an airplane and landing in the middle of nowhere behind us.

Wait a second—crashing in an airplane? _Airplane?_ Which I was currently _in_.

I had never been afraid of plane rides before. At all. But then and there, as the plane's engine ignited and started lining up for takeoff, my mind literally flew back in time, recalling every single second of chaos from the fight with North Wind, and the ultimate explosion that followed. Uncontrollably, once I fell back into reality, I clenched the chair handle tightly, and felt like I wanted to pass out. I withheld any desire to holler as to not draw attention to myself, but despite my efforts one guy a few seats up turned around and looked over at me. Besides helping me or something, he just stared, like an ass.

"Kailey, what's wrong?" Dave became aware of my situation rather quickly.

" _Shit shit shit shit shit,_ " I started chanting. I literally could do nothing else but feel as the plane started gaining speed then. My attempts at speaking were barely even whispers. "Jesus, holy shit, just save me now, _God_!"

Once the plane went airborne, I shuffled in my seat a bit, and then once the aircraft stabilized was when I finally loosened up, but just barely before my eyes looked out the window. That horrible idea caused me to swiftly turn from the seat and face the hall, again, seeing the guy from before staring at me.

"Got a problem, hoe?" My voice grew loud then, skipping only a little as I tried to intimidate him. I normally would never talk to someone like that, due to being the awkward person I was, but I was in such distress that I'd do anything to feel safe.

"Ma'm, can I get you anything?" A flight waitress suddenly appeared, smiling, but carried concern in her expression as she looked down at me. For once I was exceedingly happy to know someone in this stressful world held sympathy, because I really needed it right then.

"Water!" I gasped, "Water please."

Being the kindly person she was, she nodded out of kindness and understanding, taking my request, and disappeared down the hallway. It wasn't long after that until Dave spoke up once more.

"Hey, hey… I'm here. Don't you worry about a thing," he said, "Go into the bathroom; I need to talk to you."

I didn't answer him, but I did as he asked. Getting up, I tried to ignore the random guy staring at me, and made it to the bathroom stall, locking myself in tightly before I let Dave out of my jacket. Once he was out I felt like I wanted to collapse from all this built up stress, but as if he had anticipated it, he made sure to hold me up.

"Kailey, look at me. Everything's going to be okay," Dave reassured me again. His entire presence with me in the tiny stall didn't give us much room to move around, but honestly I was just glad I was in a place that I couldn't see through windows to a horrible fall. "You're doing great. The flight will only be a few hours," Dave continued.

"I know," I responded, tiredly. I wasn't anywhere close to being 100%, but I felt a little of the stress come off then. "I swear, if that dude keeps staring at me though I'm going to punch him in the nose. Screw him."

Dave seemed to ignore my expressions of irritability and placed a tentacle on my shoulder. It was only after this extra attempt at comforting me did I look from the walls and at him.

"Do you have any idea how much shit I've done today for you?" My statement, which was meant to come out with a pinch of bitchiness, instead came out softly. I don't know why it came out the way it did, as I had every right to be pissed beyond belief, but for some reason… I wasn't? Like, I was cool with helping him out? What the hell was going on?

"I know you have," Dave responded, meeting my calm demeanor. "And it means… a lot to me."

We stared, for quite some time, before embarrassment overcame both my fear and my attempts to be relieved, and forced me to sit up and dust his tentacle off me. " _Anyway_ …" I stated, "I'm… well, going to try and sit back down now. I'm sure that lady is going to have my water soon anyway."

"Okay…" Dave responded, calmly. He let off a sigh, Lord knows why. Afterwards, we awkwardly resumed our 'disguise' or whatever, and I walked out of the bathroom stall and back to my seat. Once I sat back down the guy from before turned around and resumed his stare, and just on queue the lady appeared with my water.

"Can I get you anything else?" she asked.

"No thank you, I'll be fine," I responded.

I watched her walk away then, but that only left the stranger and his stare and all its full force being sent my direction. I turned around, shutting the window blinds down to where I didn't have to look at the outside, and closed my eyes. Luckily for me, I was tired enough to where I was able to quickly fall asleep. That's how I usually _tried_ to pass the time when panic struck me anyway.

. . . . . . .

First thing was first: we needed a car. Luckily we… well, technically _I_ , was able to rent one once we landed in Sacramento, so after a few hours of bargaining, and deciding on insurance and crap, I finally managed to pick out a decent car to take us to our next destination.

Dave had constantly suggested then that we head towards San Francisco, which seemed like the best idea at the time, not only because it was the closest to the western shorelines where we'd most likely meet the submarine, but of course, I could tell he probably had plans for that place anyway. I didn't ask any questions about it though. I simply had my mind set on getting to San Francisco in one piece.

We had quite an amount of mileage to cover, but since I was driving, the trip initially didn't feel that long. Once we left the Sacramento territory we eventually came to a steady two lane highway that stretched across the hilly landscape, eventually leaving me to be the only one on the road. It was when other people weren't around that Dave finally took refuge in the front passenger's seat next to me.

A normal occurrence to me at the time would probably cause someone else to shit their pants if they saw the inside of the car. I mean, an octopus in a passenger's seat? That's hilarious, don't deny it. That's freaking hilarious. Despite how normal I personally felt it to be, I started thinking about how we looked from the outside of the car, which made me start to smirk mildly. I tried keeping this to myself, but of course, Dave noticed. He's been noticing a _lot_ lately.

"What are you laughing about?" Dave asked.

"I'm not laughing," I responded, keeping my smirk glued to my face. "I wasn't laughing."

"Well, you're smiling about something."

"Oh, it's nothing." I cleared my throat then, and forced my smile to dissipate. Once I managed to get my expression straight, Dave shuffled uncomfortably in his seat.

"Kailey?" he asked, calmly, yet almost cautiously. I raised a brow in response to this, giving a few seconds in between the question before I responded.

"Yeah?"

"You aren't… mad about what happened, are you?"

"Which part?" I teased. That could mean many things. Mad at the time he kidnapped me from my home? The red sparkly dress he forced me to wear? Or the plane crash, even?

"The ring…" Dave said. "You aren't mad about the ring being a tracking device?"

"Oh, I'm way over that," I mused, although thinking about it I felt my heart zap at my stomach again. Despite this feeling I continued trying to act casual. "Yep. Wayyyy over that. I mean, this is all part of your revenge, I get that. I shouldn't have gotten all emotional on you."

Dave continued to shuffle in his seat. Eventually, I saw him start twiddling two tentacles together, obviously feeling bad about what he did, but was unable to express it properly. I side eyed him a few times to watch what he was doing, but after a few minutes of sitting there like that I moved my attention back to the road and let silence take up in between us. However, a few seconds after that was when Dave spoke up again.

"I'm sorry," Dave breathed.

"I know you are. You already apologized."

"No, but I really mean it."

"Of course you do." I reached over and patted his head, then resumed my attention to the road. "Anyways, how about some tunes? It's too quiet in here."

I flicked on the radio then, though instead of something even remotely pleasing coming on the radio, 'ASS AND TITTIES' lyrics and 'TWERKING' spewed from the speakers like farting roaches, and I literally could not handle it. Before my face could fluster red, my hand zoomed back onto the radio controls and changed the channel.

Luckily the second station started playing something a little more… less crazy. I let an 80's station take over, which started playing _She Blinded Me With Science_. It was better than twerking and whatever the hell that guy was talking about. But in all seriousness, what was with some of these lyrics now a days? At least in older songs like this that overly sexual content was hidden in poetic rhymes and allegories, so it wasn't as offensive. I mean, would it kill someone to write a song that isn't about doing the do? Whatever happened to sweet love songs, or just, the importance of simple and genuine, _just_ romantic love?

Despite my internal rant as I drove, I kept my eyes on the road. For a long while I forgot Dave was even in the seat next to me, eventually my driving turning into more or less muscle memory. It was only after the music shifted to another song, when my attention returned back to reality and I took notice of Dave, who slowly but surely, stretched one of his tentacles outward, then place it on the back of my seat.

He yawned after his tentacle placed itself behind me, I guess this his way of acting 'natural' or whatever, but this only caused me to grow uncomfortable. Reluctantly I parted my gaze from the road and looked it at him.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing. Just stretching." He tried to continue his casual attitude, but I could tell this was planned. What _hell_ was happening?

"Okay…" Despite my internal protest about what he was doing, I simply gave in and scooted away from him as to put as much distance as possible between us as I could. And by distance this was only a few extra inches, but what was I supposed to do?

"Kailey…" Dave spoke up again, "Has anyone ever told you how pretty you are?"

My calm face twisted ever so slightly in confusion from his question. That was really out of the blue, and nice of him? Like, did something happen after he got hit by that truck or what? Or maybe he was just being an ass kisser from lying to me all the time?

"Uhhh…" I stuttered. Without any sort of initial warning, I felt my heart stop zapping my insides, and suddenly become overwhelmed with those annoying butterflies again. I clenched the steering wheel, as to not allow myself to, I don't know, punch myself, as I returned all attention back to the road. To my luck, however, this awkward situation would be replaced by a car up ahead, who was driving a lot slower than me. As moments passed I realized just how slow this person was driving, so I began tapping on the breaks. All embarrassment and awkward feels were then exchanged for irritation once I looked at the speedometer.

"What the hell is this guy's problem?" I hissed aloud. I read 45 MPH on what was supposed to be a 75 MPH highway. I admit, I was going a little over that, but still. "I'm getting around this old timer."

I made my decision rather quickly to pass him. I stepped on the gas and drove quickly around him, and made it in front of him, smoothly and without fault. Once he was a few cars behind me I relaxed myself again.

"There we go. Problem solved," I stated this aloud, but to my surprise the guy actually sped up and passed me.

I glared at his rearview mirror for a second, but when I couldn't see his face, I shifted my gaze to his license plate. "What is the deal, F–ITALL?" I read his personalized plate out loud, wanting to laugh briefly at it, but again irritation and ultimately anger taking over. "What's with this asshole?" It was after my statement when the guy actually started to _slow down again_.

"Pass him again," Dave said. "Or, I don't know, maybe let him have the front. We aren't in a position to, you know, reveal ourselves."

"Are you serious?" I responded. "You want someone like that driving in front of us? I'm going to pass him and put him safely behind us, yo."

"Ha, right!" Dave chipperly responded, "Like they say, we're gonna burn some dust here. Eat our rubber!"

Briefly my eyes shifted from the conflict and to Dave. "I think you mean, 'burn rubber' and 'eat our dust'."

"Really?"

"Yeah… really." I stepped on the gas once more and flew into the other lane to pass the stranger. It was with this action that the guy started to speed up, however. We rode like this in a racing fashion, before I saw the guy start to turn his head and glare at me.

"Might wanna duck," I suggested to Dave. I made the decision that I was going to let this guy pass me one more time, in hopes he was getting the hint. I let off the gas and went back behind him, thinking that we were going to put this behind us. However, what happened next topped everything else in the ways of 'unbelievable'.

 _He stomped on his breaks_. The ass stain stomped on his flipping breaks.

I swerved and started breaking myself, nearly missing the guy in a rear impact and came to a sudden stop. With heart pounding and everything from shock, I soon returned to my irritable stance.

"THIS ASSHOLE!" I yelled. My expression of anger was halted though once the guy _got out of the car_. Any form of the expression 'fight me' flew out the window then, as fear overcame the situation.

The guy was big, and obviously drunk. He sauntered over, sometimes almost tripping from his pace as he made progress over towards the car. "Get out!" he yelled.

"Holy shit!" I gasped. I looked over at Dave for suggestions. He didn't seem very fazed by the situation though, so I assumed he had everything under control.

"Run him over," Dave stated, rather matter-of-factly.

"What? Are you crazy?!" I couldn't believe my ears. "I can't just run someone over!"

"Look, I don't want to be seen by another human, and he's going to hurt you, so run him over."

"Oh my God!" I tried thinking of all the consequences of what Dave was trying to tell me, but as this furiously drunk stranger approached, I knew I had to do something, and fast.

Without second thought, I backed up the car, and in a swift and powerful rev, sped forward, and then ran the guy over. I repeat, I ran an actual person over with my car.

The guy flipped on top of the windshield, cracking it mildly, and then spun off the side. I kept driving for a second but after a few feet and when I was able to see him in my rearview mirror, I stopped.

"Holy flying shits!" I gasped, "Did I kill him? Is he dead!?" I quickly started to unbuckle myself.

"What are you doing?" Dave asked, this time with concern.

"I just ran over somebody!" I yelled, and in one quick motion leapt out of the car and went over beside the downed man. I looked down at him in horror. He was motionless.

"I JUST RAN OVER SOMEBODY!" I yelled into the sky. I felt like I wanted to dramatically fall to my knees but I remained standing regardless. Dave appeared by my side, moments after my yell, as he joined me in looking down at the guy.

"We have to hide the body," Dave said.

"HIDE THE BODY?!" I was responding in yells. I felt like I wanted to cry or something, this was absolutely horrible. I mean, I often contemplated using my car as a weapon if I ran into freaks before, but now that it was actually happening I couldn't believe it. "Where are we supposed to hide a freaking body, Dave!?"

"Ughhh…" A groan escaped the downed man, which caused me to stop yelling and look. He moved his head from one side to another, but overall still stayed out.

"He's alive?" I gasped again.

"That's a good thing!" Dave tried to shine positive light on the situation now. "Let's leave him here. That way we can put this all behind us."

"Behind us!?" I flailed my arms that time out of pure shock. "I just ran somebody over!"

"And?" Dave's forehead rose into a furrow, as if he couldn't quite contemplate what the big deal was. "He tried to hurt you, so you hurt him back. Just leave him."

"That's easy for you to say!" I almost choked that time. I guess I shouldn't have expected a different response from Dave anyway. I ended up smacking both hands onto my face and clawing at my scalp for a moment before I gave in. "Fine. We'll leave him. I hope to God nobody is going to find out about this."

"He's a drunk, nobody is going to believe him," Dave shrugged. "Kailey look, everything is going to be okay, all right? We're almost to San Francisco. Just think positive thoughts."

"Oh…okay." I took in a deep breath, trying to release my stress, but this did not quite help completely. Dave placed a tentacle around my arm and escorted me back to the car. Even when we got in and started driving off, I couldn't help but look back at the downed stranger.

I don't know what was worse. Being a kidnapper or being involved in a hit and run. Maybe I should be used to this by now.


	14. Let It Out

I'm pretty sure my forehead was red again from facepalming myself so many times. We were currently in a mall somewhere in San Francisco… shopping for wigs. Well, technically _I_ was shopping for wigs to the civilians who passed by, but if they were paying attention harder, let alone just listening, they would be able to tell something very not normal was happening. Right in front of them! Well, not technically _right_ in front of them. I mean, Dave was still hiding in my coat, but at random moments he'd reach out from my sleeve and try to touch the merchandise, but I had to slap him from doing so as to not call attention to ourselves.

I was actually fairly surprised, however, that I wasn't being bombarded with people recognizing me. But then again, I suppose the only huge reason people flocked my way was when 'Dr. Brine' was with me, and he wasn't. Not yet, at least.

"Why would you want this wig? It looks _exactly_ like the one you already have," I asked softly, but despite my efforts my voice still came out strained. If I wasn't already holding the wig I would use one of my hands to facepalm myself again, and add to the already reddened state of my skin.

"That's the point," Dave responded. "I need my disguise but I don't have it with me, so we need to find the closest item here to that."

"Why don't you get the blonde wig?" I chuckled slightly to myself. I tried imagining him wearing it. It would be different from his strangely similar 'older Dexter' look as a redhead he had going on. "Or go for the brunette. We could be… well I don't know, not twins, but we'd have the same hair color."

"No, it has to be the red one." Dave seemed pretty persistent with the idea of putting together his iconic disguise, so there was no changing his mind. I found myself sighing heavily as I turned around and headed for the register to buy the thing, though before I could get all the way there, a woman came from a door behind the counter and greeted me.

"Hello!" she said, kindly and over the top, as if she was kissing my ass for not having been there sooner. "I apologize; there were some shipments in the back I had to load up so I didn't hear you come in. Are you ready for check out?" She paused after her greeting, eyeing me harshly for a moment before her fake chipper attitude ascended into real, genuine happiness. I guess it had just dawned on her who I was.

"Wait a second—you're Mrs. Brine, aren't you?" She seemed to chuckle happily as she looked at me.

The rest of my cheeks flushed then, probably to match the red on my forehead. "Not yet, Ma'm," I responded. "We're not actually married. I'm… just his fiancée. Just call me Kailey."

" _Just_ his fiancée?" The lady seemed surprised that I had made that statement. In an astounded sort of manner she continued, "I'm so honored that you're here, right in front of me! In my store!"

"Heh." I tried playing it off, but flattery tended to charge my batteries. I ended up smiling instead from her last statement.

"Is Dr. Brine here?!" She was getting more excited by the second.

"He's somewhere in the mall…" I wasn't really lying with that one.

"And… are you buying that for him?" She seemed really confused at that moment. I couldn't blame her though. I didn't really know how to explain to her why Dr. Brine needed a wig, so it took me a second before I spat out another fake story.

"Don't tell anyone." I looked around the room for effect, which caused her to lean onto the counter and focus her gaze more intensely on me than she was doing before. "But… Dr. Brine… he's thinning."

" _Thinning?_ " she repeated, her words slipping through her teeth.

"Yes. Thinning. He's been wearing a wig for a long time, actually. I keep telling him to just shave it all off and not worry about it but he doesn't think being bald looks attractive."

"Poor dear!" the lady said.

"He's over exaggerating. He literally over exaggerates everything. I keep telling him being bald isn't that big of a deal. There are lots of men that look good without hair."

"I completely agree with you." The lady was getting into this, I could tell by how her tone went from regular front desk clerk to gossiping housewife or something. "I see some people come in here that look very attractive—men and women—without hair, but they always protest that they need hair to look conventionally attractive. But you know, as a wig saleswoman I'm here to make the customer happy, so I help them with what they ask."

"Of course. You gotta make the customer happy. I mean—if you tried too hard to convince them they looked good, you wouldn't get any sales."

"Ha, very true." She laughed.

I walked over and set the wig on the counter then. She proceeded to check the pricing and place my purchase into the system, and soon enough the transaction was completed. I could tell she was still excited though as she fumbled with the computer, attempting to do her job without looking like an idiot. I didn't get mad though. I knew how it felt working on a register, under pressure no doubt. Well, not quite like _this_ but still.

"Here you go! All set. Give Dr. Brine my blessings, please. And continue to tell him not to worry about his hair."

"I'll try." I smiled softly, wanting to chuckle, but decided for the time being to keep it back. I started walking out of that shop in particular, and shifted over to a large clothing store next to it.

"Thinning?" Dave asked then once the coast was clear.

"Hey, I have to lie on the spot, and that sounded believable." I shrugged. I found myself grabbing different sorts of men's clothing once I came to the first rack, and stuffed whatever I could grab into a pile in my arms. After I managed to grab some random garments I immediately went towards the changing area, and into a booth in particular. Once I had shut the door and hung all the clothes up for Dave, was when I unzipped my white lab coat to let him out.

"Get the hell off of me and try on these clothes," I spat out. He seemed to plop onto the floor, then gather himself in the changing room. Again, his presence made the booth seem very small. "Take the wig, and do your thing. I'll wait just outside the door for you."

"Okay, don't go away though." Dave seemed nervous, though I couldn't blame him. I was pretty much playing as his anchor to normality right now, so if I suddenly left he'd be stuck.

"I won't." My answer came out in a sort of 'done' fashion, since I was to be honest, and left the changing booth and took a seat just a few feet in front of it.

I remained sitting there for a long time, bored out of my mind, as I listened to shitty mall/elevator music. It was only after sitting there for a few moments that I realized the music was actually a shitty mall/elevator version of Never _Gonna Give You Up_ , so of course I started laughing to myself like a freaking nerd. I tend to do that when I'm bored. I find literally _anything_ to entertain myself.

"Kailey, are you out there?" Dave whispered from the booth.

"Yes." A chuckle mixed slightly into my response from my prior giggling, "I'm here." The door slowly opened, revealing Dave now as Dr. Brine, but once he stepped out fully I cringed, but still remained in a state where I wanted to laugh. "What the hell are you wearing?!" I let out.

"I put on some of the clothes you grabbed!" Dave responded, sending the blame on me.

"You don't mix plaids you freaking dork! That doesn't match at all! Change immediately!"

"I don't know what to wear!" he continued to protest. "I want my lab coat!"

"Do I have to freaking dress you?" I sat up, giving off a gigantic sigh and squeezed past him to look through the assortment of clothes I picked up. I ended up separating a dork ass white sweater vest with green accents, and a pair of tan slacks. I also kicked a pair of brown dress shoes and socks his way, along with a pair of white golf gloves to cover his 'hands'.

"There. Wear this," I ordered. "You see what I did there? Didn't mix plaids."

"Fine," Dave sighed this time. "Seriously, I was just putting on what you gave me."

I huffed from irritation and swept past him again, shutting the door behind me as I returned to my seat. I heard him shuffle around, I guess trying to stuff himself into the clothes, and then after a few more moments the door opened once again.

This time, despite still being a mixed-matched nightmare, he actually looked… nice? Is that an oxymoron? Can you look like a geek and look nice at the same time?

"How about this?" he said, gesturing to himself.

"It looks good. You look good." I paused, and stiffened in my seat. I saw his eyes shift up from my random spill of words, which, mind you, I was not aware of until the split second they left my mouth. Realizing what he probably thought, I instantly deterred my statement to avoid awkward confrontation. "Still a nerd though," I finished.

"One thing's missing," he said. He walked out of the changing room and up to me, extending a hand outwards. "I put my glasses in your left inner pocket."

"Oh." I didn't even realize he still had those. I did as he told me and found the glasses, then placed them in his palm. After that he put them on, and like some sort of miracle, he had pulled it off. He was Dr. Octavius Brine again. "Now you won't have to sit under my coat anymore," I said. I felt so relieved. "You're actually pretty heavy. I'm tired."

"I could carry you around, now," he offered. It came out as sincere, but I laughed just thinking about it.

"Ha! Not in public. I don't want that kind of attention." There was a pause before I continued with another question. "So, what do we do now?"

"I suppose we should go ahead and buy these clothes, then call the submarine."

"Sounds good," I agreed. I sat up then and we started walking towards the counter. After convincing the clerk to pay for the clothes _and_ wear them out at the same time, which was easy because, hey, Dr. Brine, we finally left the shop and went into the hallway, where we picked up a payphone. I remained to the side as Dave started talking to his henchmen. I could instantly hear the familiar gobbles on the other end of the line.

"Where are you?" Dave asked. "How much longer?"

Gobbles responded, but instead of urgently like they normally sounded, they were pretty sure of themselves this time.

"Sunset? You can't make it faster than that?"

Proceeding gobbles.

"Fine. We'll meet you at the shoreline by sunset. Sarah, Jessica, park her behind some rocks. I don't want the submarine to be noticed. Not now."

He hung up the phone then, and placed his thumb and index 'fingers' to his eyes and rubbed them momentarily before he turned towards me. He seemed to instantly replace his slight irritability from his henchmen with a soft smile.

"Well, we have a lot of time to kill. What do you want to do?" he asked.

I literally stared at him for a good fifteen seconds before I responded. He was asking me _what I wanted to do_? That's never happened before. Ever. Like, I was half expecting him to take me on another one of his weird fiascoes.

"We're not going to use this time to steal more penguins?" I snickered, attempting to be sarcastic.

"No, that wouldn't be a good idea. We're stranded, by all means, so we'll have to wait until the submarine is in town to start back up with my revenge. So, it's your call. What do you want to do?"

Again I was quiet. I had no idea what to say. The last time I did something that I genuinely wanted to do was during college, and during the summer when my dad asked me what I wanted to eat for dinner, and that was it. I tried thinking of all the different things we could do. My eyes seemed to look up at the signs in the mall, scanning for ideas, and then processed those ideas into actual things we could do. Once my eyes landed on what was obviously a _Cheesecake Factory_ being advertised in the store, I found my straight lips slowly curving upwards into a smirk.

"Oh. I know what to do." I was trying to hide my excitement but I started chuckling.

"What?" Dave seemed eager to know, but he tried to keep casual about it.

"You've got money to spend. A shit ton of money. You like cheese, and I like cake. And I'm hungry. So we should go to the _Cheesecake Factory_ and try every single cheesecake they have on the menu."

"What's cheesecake?"

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT CHEESECAKE IS?!" I flailed my arms a little when I heard that. I only shifted my eyes to the side that time to make sure people weren't staring. "You're telling me you're a cheese enthusiast but have never had cheesecake?"

"I don't think cheesecake is actually 'cheese', dearest."

"Who the hell cares!? It has the word _cheese_ in it, so that's good enough!" I grabbed his hand, urgent now to take him to the freaking _Cheesecake Factory_ , because holy shit he needed to try some damned cheesecake. "Move your lanky legs, let's go!"

I followed the signs, dragging Dave behind me, and soon enough we made our way toward the portion of the mall where the restaurant was located. We stood behind a group of people to wait for our turn. At the time everybody was unaware of who exactly was behind them. I stared intensely at the clerk in the front, waiting for him to look up and notice us. I needed to get me some damned cake, like I'm not even joking about this.

The clerk's eyes shifted up. It took a moment for him to register who was literally standing in front of him, but once he did, his mouth hung open, and he briefly left his place in the front and went somewhere into the back of the restaurant. After a few minutes, he came back, with what was obviously the restaurant's manager, and they broke through the crowd in front of us to greet us personally.

"Dr. Brine?" the manager spoke on behalf of the clerk, whose mouth was still open. "I—I can't believe you're standing here! With your beautiful fiancée, might I add! Are you looking for a table?" He seemed genuinely surprised. Why would a renowned geneticist come to a _Cheesecake Factory_? Because I wanted cake, that's why.

"Yes!" I stepped into the conversation when Dave didn't answer quickly enough. "We're here to try all your cheesecake."

"All of our cakes?" The manager seemed excited to oblige. "We'd be happy to serve you! Please, come this way!" He gestured to the clerk to remain standing where he was while we followed the manager, who walked us through the restaurant. Immediately, eyes glued onto us like freaking dogs begging for treats, but this time I didn't care. I was so into this. I was so getting ready for the cake.

The manager seated us then, "So you want to try all of our cakes? We can have a large platter brought out for you with all the different flavors on the menu. Two of each, of course."

"Good, yes," I responded.

"Can I get your anything else?"

"Just water. That's it."

The manager nodded, and then proceeded towards the kitchen areas. This left Dave and I sitting there, with eyes on us, although I was too happy at that point to care whatsoever. I felt like a little kid a Disney World or something. CAKE!

"Have you been here before?" Dave asked me then, briefly driving away my internal turmoil of which piece of cake I was going to try first.

"Yes. Although when it comes to the cakes I've only had three different ones from here. I've wanted to try them all for some time."

"What's your favorite out of the three you've tried?"

"Oh boy, that's a tough one. I've had the Peanut Butter thing which was good, but really strong. Then I've had the Tuxedo, and the Godiva chocolate one, but geez, it's so hard to choose just one. Anything with chocolate usually helps make the top ones, to be honest."

"That's right; you like chocolate," He chuckled slightly, obviously amused by how I was acting. "I might be the cheese enthusiast, but you're the chocolate enthusiast."

"Ha! I guess you're right," I giggled at the thought of a potential headline of me, which I spoke aloud as I thought of it. "Kailey! Boss Human Resources Manager for Octo Corp, chocolate enthusiast!" I laughed again. It was really hard to imagine myself being up there in the famous category, at least up there with Dave. I mean, I wasn't a genius like he was so I don't even think an HR Boss was even close.

Just then the manager, along with a waiter, set down a large platter in front of us. There were two bite sized pieces of each cake, and from the looks of it in the order they were on the menu. It was literally like eating out of a box of chocolates. Only instead of a box of chocolates it was a big ass platter of cheesecake.

"Please enjoy! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask." The manager and the waiter then backed off, leaving me and Dave with the big ass platter of cheesecake.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach, I'm sure. "We should start from the beginning," I said. "Let's do this." I cranked my hands together, as if prepping to crack my knuckles like they did in movies, but I was never able to do that. I just stretched my fingers instead for effect, and then grabbed a fork.

"I guess we should start with the traditional cheesecake, since this is your first time trying this sort of thing." I paused and shivered for a moment, since a wave of air-conditioning hit me, but also because it was hard to imagine someone never trying cake or anything in its likeness before.

"Okay." Dave picked up his fork, followed my finger to the one I was pointing at, grabbed it with his fork, then took a bite. I watched him intently as he tried it, waiting for that moment of glory.

"So?" I spoke up, "What do you think?"

"What do I think?" Dave was serious, seemingly glaring at me for a moment until his expression flipped into his large grin after he had swallowed the bite of food. "I love it! Why haven't my henchmen brought this to my attention before? This is brilliant!"

"Eeeeee!" I softly screeched through my teeth. "Well, prepare yourself because we still have a GIANT BIG ASS PLATTER TO GO THROUGH, BRO!"

. . . . . . .

"I don't think it was a good idea to eat all that," Dave said as he placed a hand to his head. "I feel really light-headed."

"It's called a sugar high," I responded. I steered the car onto the beach, although stopping just before the large rocks that were set before us. We'd have to climb over them, but it wouldn't be too big of a problem with Dave with me. Providing he could walk.

"I've never had a sugar high."

"Oh, that's right," I smiled lightly to myself, "I don't think cake is part of an octopus' diet, huh?"

"No, it isn't."

"Neither is cheese, though."

"Just because I'm an octopus doesn't mean I don't like to try human food," Dave sneered in a joking manner as he opened the door to the car. I stopped the engine and followed him out, where we then started scaling the mildly steep rocks to the other side in order to meet the ocean. On our way up I turned around to make sure nobody was watching us, though when only the distant red bridge and tiny passing cars remained was when I felt it was safe enough to disappear.

"Whoa, it's been awhile since I've seen water this clear," I spoke aloud. Once the ocean came into view it was honestly breathtaking. "You know, because Texas beaches aren't all that great."

Dave stood there looking out into the water, I supposed waiting for the sub to pop up any moment now since the sun was finally starting to go down. After he didn't say anything for a few moments was when I sat down, finally giving into any sort of lack of communication between us. I guess he was tired, or mad again, or whatever, but that was just assumptions since I didn't bother looking at his facial expressions.

"Thank you," Dave said, his quiet voice however seemingly loud amongst the soft waves below the rocks.

"No probs," I responded simply.

There was a long train of silence until Dave finally made the decision to sit down with me. "It's nice to have company other than my henchmen, you know," he finally confessed, "and doing something else other than revenge was nice."

His tone broke my stare at the orange shimmering water beyond me, and caused me to look over at him. Instead of looking outward onto the water now, however, he was looking down at the rocks. He suddenly seemed rather distraught, as much as he tried to hide it.

"Hey, you alright?" I asked. "Don't go bawling on me or something."

"I'm not going to bawl." He lifted his sulking head up a little bit and straightened his back.

"Hey, don't be embarrassed though, I get ya." I tried to deter my sarcasm a bit once I saw he was remaining in this sulking state. "You know, I've never really liked sunsets."

The turning of the conversation seemed to catch his attention, and he finally looked up from the ground and to me. "Why?" he asked in a concerned manner.

"Because I like sunrises better," I shrugged, "It's a long story though."

"Hey, I wanna hear it." Dave managed to break another soft smile.

"Well, all right. But don't make fun of me, okay?" I shuffled on the ground to get more comfortable. Once I settled down was when I continued. "During my early years in college, like right after high school, I got really sick, and these weird 'episodes' I like to call them, lasted for years after that. I'd wake up in the middle of the night because of it, and so I'd go without sleep most of the time. Later on, once it started getting dark, I'd even avoid simple things like not eating so I wouldn't make my illness worse. It was really horrible."

My eyes seemed to fall onto the rocks then. I tried not getting into it but once I started talking about it I had to revisit those moments firsthand. I felt my heart sink the more I thought about it, but I proceeded regardless. "I couldn't sleep because I was scared and I felt really, _really_ bad. Every night, for almost a month at a time it would be like this. It was dark, and I was alone, and I was scared. And there was nothing I could do about it."

I let a few seconds pass with silence. From what I was aware of, Dave continued staring at me, but my eyes were still on the ground. It was only after I began moving the conversation again did my eyes lift back up to look at the water.

"Sunsets meant the day was over, and I'd have to go through another night like that all over again. But it was also the sunrise that reminded me that everything was going to be all right. Once the sun came up, I wasn't afraid anymore because I wasn't alone. Even if my parents weren't there, I could rely on the sunrise because it was sure to come. I started hating nighttime after that." I laughed lightly to myself, attempting to break any negativity. "But it's not as bad anymore. I've gotten to where if those things do happen I can handle it."

"I didn't even know," Dave said, as if he was almost ashamed.

"That's the point," I let off another chuckle with my response. "Sometimes you gotta hide your flaws and insecurities and move on. That's really all you _can_ do. Because not everybody is going to care."

"I care." He moved his hand then, and placed it on top of mine, which was sitting on the rocks. I wasn't expecting this. He was suddenly being really super nice, and that in itself caught me off guard. "It's not a good feeling," he continued. "Being alone."

"Yeah," I sighed. I tried avoiding looking at him, but after a while it was uncontrollable to not do so. "But look on the bright side." I tried smiling then. "I've got you and you've got me. We won't have to be alone ever again."

I saw his eyes lighten up. If I didn't know any better it was like fireworks were going off. If it wasn't for his crooked toothed smile that soon followed I'd probably have forgotten he wasn't actually a human being.

But… that concept on its own was strange. He was more human than _me_ sometimes, let alone any of my other friends that have come and gone over the years. He was genuine, cared and understood my problems. It took him a while, but he cared. Not even Leah, my own freaking cousin, could sit down with me and truly understand my situation without accidentally making it all about her.

"It's funny how the only person I can really talk to is actually an octopus," I started laughing then, uncontrollably, despite how he remained silent in his stare. Even when the waves began parting in greeting of the submarine rising from the ocean, I still couldn't break from my laughter.

The laughing and making fun helped suppress those stupid ass butterflies that kept taking over my stomach.


	15. Million Dollar Cupcakes

The following day upon arriving back to the submarine was relatively normal. And by that, I mean normal in regards to what I was doing. I was actually doing HR work, and not, you know, kidnapping penguins, or getting shot at by North Wind. The best part about actually getting back to work, and doing what I've been training years for in college, was now I finally had my own assistant! _Woot!_ Well, he was my translator/scribe, and not technically my assistant, but whatever. It felt nice getting help around here, especially since I had no idea what the hell these henchmen were saying.

Edgar, my translator, was a blue octopus that usually kept to himself, only spoke when spoken to, and did his job the best he could. What I found adorable about this little guy was that he had a slightly lighter tone of blue around his left eye, in a circular fashion that made it look like he was wearing a monocle. Although he was easy to tell apart from the others, I've also had to turn my memory into overdrive and try and tell apart the others anyway. I still wasn't anywhere close to remembering everyone's names, but it was getting slightly easier with Edgar's help.

However, with work comes frustration. Like always. It's unavoidable, really. Even while working with a bunch of gobbling octopuses I found they can be just as irritating to be around as you would any humans. My job got a little harder, breaking me from dealing with the finances from the last pledge drive, and to a complaint. Dave had been busy the last few hours, so he had been giving me some leadership among the henchmen. Which I wasn't particularly prepared for.

A yellow octopus with a droopy head spilled into my office, gobbling all over the place like a chicken that had just been chased by an annoying little kid or something. Edgar seemed calm in the situation, but the sudden erupting gobbles pulled me from my train of thought so quickly that I gasped out loud, and stared at the yellow octopus that had just come in, waiting for some sort of sentence to be transcribed from the sounds I was hearing.

I constantly looked between the yellow octopus and Edgar, who started writing down what he was saying. A few moments after the yellow octopus finished talking was when Edgar handed me the notepad and let me proceed to read what had just been spilled.

"Jacob?" I spoke aloud, after I managed to read what had been written down. "You're having problems with… RJ? He's not doing his work properly?"

Jacob sighed, and then proceeded to gobble again. Edgar took the notepad from my hand and started writing once more, although this series of complaints didn't last as long. Once I got the notepad back I managed to get the point.

"He's slacking off, huh?" I rolled my eyes. I thought all these henchmen were perfect, working components to Dave's work, but again, like any other company, they had their problems. "Always has to be that one, doesn't there?" I picked up an intercom communicator and turned the thing on. I heard the speakers throughout the submarine go off and then started talking.

"RJ? RJ, get to my office right now!" Instead of coming off as a professional I'm sure I just sounded like an angry mom instead. After I made my order, I set the communicator down, and Edgar, Jacob, and I just sat among each other in silence, until after a bit a green octopus came around the corner and into the office.

I tapped my fingers on the desk a couple of times as I looked over RJ. Like Jacob had been complaining about, the obviousness of slacking off could not be more evident to me now. RJ was holding a pack of chips, specifically Cheesy Dibbles, and in the other arm he had a half-eaten sandwich.

"Jacob here is telling me you're slacking off," I stated as my eyes narrowed. RJ looked from me, stunned, and towards Jacob. After the two made eye contact instant hostility grew between the two. They both started gobbling at each other forcefully, until Edgar stepped in and started fussing back. The three complained for a few more minutes, leaving me with my face in my hands as I waited for everything to calm down. I suddenly heard Edgar write something down, and then nudge my side once he was finished.

I reluctantly parted my hands from my face to grab the notepad, and then read.

"You're saying… you're _not_ slacking off?" I asked RJ tiredly. "But Jacob here says you are. Are there any other members in your team? Witnesses?"

Jacob let out a singular gobble, then nodded his head up and down. I took that as a yes. Afterwards I leaned the notepad at Edgar, who then proceeded to write down the information I needed for the next call.

"Okay…" I signed, then turned the intercom back on and gave off another order. "Penny and Kenny, come to my office now!"

Again, we waited for a few minutes in silence before the two other henchmen came from around the corner. Kenny, a pale orange octopus with one whitened eye from obviously fighting, came first. He hesitated only to wait for Penny, who shortly came after, although her appearance caught me off guard.

If I had to give a rough estimate to the general size of these henchmen, they were about as tall as the length from the floor to a doorknob in your typical home. That came to about my hips, or to my lower waistline, depending on the individual. However, Penny, was much, _much_ smaller than that. She was a little less than half the size of the others, and was a powder pink color. She was obviously just a baby octopus. And to be honest, she was _freaking_ adorable.

"Penny? Kenny?" I spoke aloud after I managed to get myself to talk. "There is apparently a conflict between you all. Please tell me, as members of the same work group, is this true? Is RJ slacking off?"

Kenny nodded, stiffly and seriously, while Penny did the same in a mimicking manner. Penny proceeded to make a series of gobbles, confirming my suspicions.

"RJ!" I looked over to him, eyeing him as seriously as I could. "We cannot allow any more setbacks. Whatever you guys are doing, you need to get it done in the time Dave has set for you." I put my hand out. "Give me your snacks."

RJ looked pleadingly at me for a second, then eyed Jacob angrily again. I cleared my throat, which seemed to get his attention in time before another fuss resumed, and then he reluctantly came up to me and handed me the food.

"You will eat at your designated lunch hour! If you don't want to work here then you can leave!"

RJ gobbled at me this time, pleading as he placed two of his tentacles together in a praying fashion. Edgar started writing something down, and then handed the notepad to me once RJ was done.

"You are loyal to Dave. Good." I found myself smiling in response to what RJ had said. This was so incredibly amusing. He was literally telling me how he was just as loyal to Dave as the other henchmen and wouldn't do anything that would hurt the completion of his revenge or hesitate to help him in any way. What pals, seriously. Dave's henchmen were the true definition of friends, I couldn't believe this. "Yes, good," I repeated, keeping my smile. I, however, erased it quickly as to take up dominance once again in the situation. "Then get back to work!" I barked.

RJ gave me a salute, and then rushed out of the room. This left Penny, Kenny, Jacob, and Edgar, the last of the henchmen in the room with me.

"You three!" I gestured to the rest of RJ's team. "Can you tell me… what is it you're working on, exactly?"

Penny was the one to start talking. She gobbled excitedly for a few moments before I was handed the notepad again from Edgar.

"Machines for combat?" I eyed the notepad, worriedly for a second. "Are you… rebuilding the aircraft from the battle with North Wind?"

Penny shook her head, and then started talking again. Edgar scribbled on the notepad then turned it back to me when finished.

"Support tanks?" I gasped. I found myself sitting up, "show me now!"

Although I sounded urgent, Penny looked excited. She, along with the other henchmen, walked with me downwards from my office to the larger lab on the other side of the sub. Instead of just the Medusa Serum cylinder from before, there were now three weird looking machines, all the same color as the submarine and held Dr. Brine's insignia. They all had to be about 17-feet tall. Each had a set of tank wheels, but instead of the typical tank, they sat upright in an elongated way, and like arms, had two large turret barrels on either side. They looked pretty much completed, which was the scariest part.

"What are these?" I gasped out loud. It was only when Dave awkwardly sat up from around the corner of one of them, along with RJ who had gotten here before us, did my train of thought scurry from looking at these giant things to Dave himself.

"Kailey! Dearest!" Dave said happily, although his happy tone carried a bit of surprise in it from me being here. "You guys… why did you bring her here? I wanted to show her!"

Penny giggled, allowing the time for Dave to sit up from inspecting the machines and walked over to me.

"Dave?" I took in a gigantic sigh. "What are these things for?"

"For defense of course!" Dave started to explain. "North Wind is still out there, you know, so we have to be prepared. Penny, Kenny, RJ, and Jacob here will be the ones piloting them, since they're the ones that have been working on them. Although little Penny is the mastermind behind the design. I can't take that credit."

"Penny designed these?!" I gasped again, amazed. This cute, little, pink octopus put together these horrible death machines?!

"Yupper-doo! She's actually the one that has been designing all my machines since my return," Dave said. "She helped design and rebuild the submarine, the aircraft, and these things. We're still working on another project, but it's back at our building in New York. It would be too big to put in here."

"Too big!?" I spat out again. This was unbelievable.

"Haha, yes," Dave started to chuckle at my outward expression of disbelief. "But I can show you that thing when we're actually back in New York. And it's finished, for that matter." Dave walked up to me then, and gave out a command to his henchmen. "Continue your work, gentleman! And lady."

The little octopus henchmen nodded and instantly did as they were told while Dave took me to the side. Once he felt like he had my attention was when he started to speak.

"I've actually been meaning to talk to you," he started. "I received a call early this morning from a bachelor living here in San Francisco. There is talk about him potentially donating money to us, so he's invited us to his annual summer ball."

My eyes widened, this uncontrollable in all regards. "A-a ball?" I stuttered in disbelief.

"Yes… there will be other important attendees there, such as the mayor and other scientists. I need you to be with me when I go." Dave paused, his eyes shifting across my face as a way to try and read me. "You're… not happy, are you?" he then asked, worriedly. "I should have told you sooner."

I was in a mixed state of feels. I put my face into my hands and started chuckling, but Dave thought I was crying. He started acting all worried again.

"Kailey! What's wrong? I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, honest!" The poor guy was so concerned with making me cry that he couldn't tell the difference between laughing sobs to crying. Although I didn't know exactly how I looked so I wouldn't know any better, really.

"A—A ball?" I stuttered aloud through my chuckles. I finally parted my face from my palms in a quick movement, giving off the biggest smile I think I ever managed to produce in a long time. "I've never been to a ball!" I finally let out. "You mean—an actual ball where I can be like…" my lips trembled, "a PRINCESS?"

"Uhhh…" Dave seemed rather dumbfounded, "I guess? I've never been to one either, so I don't know."

"We have to do some shopping then; what are we going to wear?"

"I've already taken care of that."

My smile drooped. "Please don't tell me you picked out the clothes. Based on what you picked out last time…" I shivered, "…is not ball material."

"That was a circus!" Dave maintained his case with that quickly. "This is a ball. I may have never been to one, but I know the difference. I looked into what you humans wear to these kinds of things. Specifically, I looked at the dresses on your Facebook page and what you wore to things like your prom, or your relatives' wedding when you were a bridesmaid. I figured I could work with something like that, which I already did."

I thought about the dresses he was talking about. Both of those he mentioned were very nice, classy garments, so I could at least know that Dave had a decent enough reference to go by. The prom dress in particular, which had always been my favorite, was all black, for the exception of the upper torso area, which was a bronze color. My dad had always said it reminded him of what a modern Grand Duchess of Russia would have worn if there was still a royal family. He picked it out though, so of course he was going to say something like that!

"If you say so," I answered.

"I put the dress in your room. Penny here can help you with getting ready. She might be a mechanical engineer, but she's also a really good hair and makeup stylist."

I raised a brow, and looked over to Penny who was watching the other henchmen of her team work on the last bits of the tanks. When she heard what Dave said, she looked up, and waved giddily at us.

"A stylist, too?" I mused aloud. "Unbelievable. A multitalented, child prodigy octopus. Now that's new."

. . . . . . .

I don't know how she did it, but Penny managed to get my hair styled, and makeup put on my face. Without getting goo on me. I couldn't help but ask her where she managed to master hand-eye coordination, and at such a young age, along with what inspired her to build all these machines for Dave.

Because octopuses didn't have traditional schooling like people, she had to self-teach. She also admitted that most of her designs were inspired by human video games, as well as the controls of her machines like the ones in the tanks, and whatever she had designed in New York. Like, instantly I had a girl buddy. An octopus girl buddy, but a buddy nonetheless. And one that liked a lot of the same things as me even, so that was just the cherry on top.

It was only after I had the dress on (which pretty much looked exactly like my old prom dress) and was ready to go did I realize that I didn't have a mirror to look in. Not that I didn't trust Penny, but I really wanted to see what she did. I tried looking at myself on the metal reflections on the walls, but due to their darkened state I was unable to see myself clearly.

"Well, I'm sure you know what you're doing," I said. I turned to Penny then, and kneeled down to her level. She looked up at me happily, I suppose still exited from her work. Despite being a mechanical genius she was still young. Her childlike mannerisms seemed to escape her easily. "Thank you little one, for all your help," I said then.

Uncontrollably, Penny scurried over to me, and wrapped her tentacles around me in a hug. I can't tell you how absolutely freaking adorable this was. Ugh. Whoever says octopuses aren't cute have to be crazy or something.

"Time to head out and do some more revenging, I guess," I stated this seriously at first, but once Penny pulled away from the hug and looked at me I started chuckling along with her.

Standing up, I opened my door and started walking towards the main open complex in the center of the submarine to wait for Dave. It didn't take too long until he came from the back halls, entering the room with two of his henchmen.

Surprisingly, he looked _good_. Like, again, was being a huge nerd and managing to be… I don't know, nice looking possible? He still looked like Dr. Brine, don't get me wrong, but I guess tuxedos do something to guys that make them look ten times better.

"You look like a loser," I joked. "Still a nerd."

"Now that's hurtful," Dave joked back, focusing his attention on me. "And I was just about to say how…" he trailed off for a moment, suddenly losing his ability to joke around or to remain confident. I wasn't sure what was going on, but instead of jumping in and asking about it I just waited for him to gather himself. He cleared his throat and pulled at his collar before he started stuttering again. "…I-I was just going to say, how…"

"How what?" I asked. I only spoke up when I found he wasn't actually going to come straight out with what he had in mind. I went from being decently laid back to curious instantly.

"… how beautiful you look."

The henchmen at Dave's sides put a tentacle to the front of their faces as their eyes grew wide, and let out an extremely mild "ohhhhhhh!"

"Elton, John, shut up!" Dave fussed. I knew octopuses couldn't blush, but quickly, as in like an instant in which you would miss if you had blinked, Dave lost control of his human skin coloring briefly and turned purple.

I smiled, at first, but then started laughing. "Thank you!" I managed to say. I only was able to calm myself down after a few seconds. "I haven't been able to see myself yet, so at least I have second feedback that Penny did a good job. Not that I doubted her skills, of course."

"Yeah…" Dave seemed a little shaken up but he managed to get back into business quickly. "I have a limo outside waiting for us. We should get going."

"I knew it," I remarked. "Of course you got a limo again."

"What's wrong with a limo? Would you rather I call in a cab next time?"

"No!"

"See… you like the limo too, don't judge."

I laughed again. "You're right, you're right."

I then started to walk with Dave out of the submarine and onto a parking lot close by the shore. We proceeded into the limo and drove further into San Francisco, maneuvering through the streets and working our way to our destination in a timely manner. We ended up getting off in front of a large building, where other people dressed in formal attire gathered as well. At least I knew instantly we were in the right place. That's usually how I could tell where I was supposed to be anyway; just look at what people are wearing and you'll know. This works exceptionally for comic or anime conventions.

Once off the streets and into the building, we followed other attendees up a fancy staircase. On our way up I could hear the sound of a string quartet playing, along with chatter from people who were already here. It was only once we made our way up the stairs did I finally see what a ball looked like.

It was gorgeous. There was a large, silver-white marble ballroom dance floor that held a good handful of couples waltzing on it. To the side there was an elegant bar of cubed cheeses, crackers, and shrimp. To my surprise there was even a dessert section with an assortment of cupcakes. The string quartet was playing next to the extremely large windows to the right that revealed the darkening city streets outside, so the street lamps were beginning to come on. Right then and there, I'm sure my little girl self came out, because I was squeeing to myself excitedly and uncontrollably.

"Dr. Brine!" I heard someone say from the crowd then. An older, grey haired man, along with a younger boy, about seventeen years of age, came up to us. The older guy reached his hand out to Dave's for a handshake (which even while wearing a tux wore a pair of gloves THANK GOD) and proceeded to introduce himself.

"It is truly an honor to meet you, Doctor," the older guy greeted. "I am Mr. Harris and this is my son, Christopher."

"Oh!" Dave seemed to perk up once the guy introduced himself. By the way Dave was acting, Mr. Harris must be the bachelor that invited us here. "It's a pleasure to be here." Dave was really good at this kissing ass sort of thing. I guess he had to be to get what he wanted, though. "You are familiar with my fiancée, Kailey, I'm sure."

"Yes I am," Mr. Harris responded. "Thank you both for attending. I actually have quite a lot to discuss with you. But first, would either of you care for a drink? A glass of wine perhaps?"

"Oh, no thank you. I don't drink," I responded as kindly as I could. "A glass of water would be nice, though."

"Very well." Mr. Harris gestured toward one of the waiters walking around to come over, which then would offer me a glass of water on the platter he was carrying around. I picked up one of the fancy plastic cups and held onto it, while Dave proceeded talking to the bachelor.

"Now… concerning your company and your endeavors to rescue those kidnapped penguins," Mr. Harris begun. "I'm sure Octo Corp in itself was a large step for you, especially so quickly after your hiatus. And you've only had one pledge drive so far."

"That is correct," Dave answered. "With the first pledge drive we managed to bring in at least 56,000 dollars, although that amount will rise significantly with our following drives."

"Tisk. That just won't do," Mr. Harris said. "Along with your studies I'm sure that's not enough to help with your task on finding the missing penguins."

"No, it's not," Dave signed lightly. "That's why we may have a delay when it comes to setting out to find them. Kailey is having a hard time as it is balancing our finances. There is just so much to do and so little income."

As they talked I started taking a sip of my water. As interesting as this conversation was, I found my eyes darting off and looking around. There was one lady in particular who had this super tall decorated hair that had crystal butterflies in it, along with her partner, who was significantly shorter than her. I smiled, lightly, although kept myself from full blown making fun for the sake of not making an ass of myself. Afterwards I turned back to the conversation, and continued to drink my water.

"I'm sure," Mr. Harris sighed. "That is why I've decided to donate to you. Because of your valiant efforts, I've decided I am going to be giving you 4.5 million dollars."

Upon hearing this, I felt myself seize up in shock. Because of my reaction, the water, instead of falling down my esophagus and into my stomach, ended up going into my lungs instead. I did a partial spit take and then proceeded to choke. _Seriously though, 4.5 million dollars?! Was that even a thing? Damn?!_

"Kailey, are you all right?" Dave shifted his attention from Mr. Harris to me instantly, placing a hand on my back to support me.

Through watered eyes and after a few moments trying to breathe properly again, I finally gathered myself together enough to speak. "I'm fine," I stated, letting out a couple more coughs in between my answer. "Swallowed my water wrong, happens all the time."

"You scared me for a moment there!" Mr. Harris said, attempting to lighten up his attitude. "I do the same thing all the time. I thought I was the only one." He then turned to Dave. "I'd like to make arrangements now for the money transfer, if that's all right. Please come with me to my office upstairs and I'll have that ready for you."

"Sounds great," Dave answered, turning to me only briefly, "I'll be back soon, dearest."

"Okay," I responded, then watched Mr. Harris and Dave walk through the ballroom and up another flight of stairs. After they disappeared into the hallway above was when Mr. Harris's son, Christopher, approached me.

"While my father is speaking elsewhere with your fiancé, perhaps you can tell me a little about yourself?" Despite being so young he seemed to carry himself elegantly like his dad. The only difference was he seemed a little snottier, but that could just be because he was young.

"Oh, me? Well… where should I start?" I thought to myself about what to say, though Christopher seemed to help me out by asking another question.

"Tell me about your degree. You are obviously running Octo Corp alongside Dr. Brine."

"I graduated earlier this last fall," I answered then, "with a professional degree in Human Resources."

"Ah, of course, that's right. I'm sure your efforts have significantly helped your fiancé in his work. And with his new company, no doubt."

"Yes, I'm sure." I smiled lightly to myself thinking about it. "Although I can't give all the credit to myself. I may have gone through college but if it wasn't for my parents, specifically my dad helping me financial wise, I'm sure I wouldn't have gone this far."

"Your father, what does he do?" Christopher asked next.

"He's an environmental consultant, but also runs his own business on the side in a similar field. He's had to work two jobs in order to make a living, especially once he sent my brother and I off to school."

"Two jobs?" Christopher suddenly chuckled, as if amused. "Surely you're kidding."

I eyed him a second, but proceeded anyway. "No… I'm not. You're still young to know how financial burdens work, but making a living now a days, especially while trying to raise a family, takes two jobs sometimes."

"For the working class maybe—" Christopher stopped mid-sentence, however, and raised a brow, "unless, of course, you do come from a working class family? Well then, in that case it's a good thing you're marrying Dr. Brine. How he found you, however, baffles me to be honest."

"What do you mean?" I found my eyes narrowing again, full-fledged however, as this casual conversation suddenly turned into weird territory.

"Well, he's the most renowned geneticist in the world that is on top of his field in this decade, and most likely, decades to come. The idea of him finding you, a working class—well… normal person is quite astounding."

"You're kidding, right?" I felt my hands suddenly bunt up into fists. I felt like if I didn't get away from this kid, and fast, I'd probably punch him in the face. _Would it be wrong to punch a child?_

I shifted my eyes then elsewhere, _somewhere_ , to try and get my mind off this conversation and out of it for that matter. Once my eyes spotted the cupcakes was when I excused myself from this situation.

"I'm going to check out those cupcakes over there," I said, "it was… nice talking to you." I found myself hissing the word 'nice' as my internal turmoil tried to withhold itself from screeching out like breaking tires. I turned away from the boy and walked off towards the cupcakes, although instead of grabbing one like I would have normally done, I found myself staring off at the silver marble walls behind them.

I wasn't used to this fancy stuff. At all. Never in my life had I been to a ball, or rode in a limo multiple times. I hadn't even spoken to someone like Mr. Harris or his shit talking son before. But while standing there, in my isolated state, I suddenly found myself thinking about my dad again… and my mom.

"What's happened to me?" I whispered out loud. I suddenly felt as if the quartet and the many conversations in the room had become muffled, as I returned into deep thought. I had thought of my parents on and off, sure. But to realize that Christopher thought of them as a simple 'working class', and even classified me as something so out of his league, let alone 'Dr. Brine's' league, made me angry.

I wanted to tell him how pissed I was. I wanted to slap his stupid little ear and tell him that not everybody is as lucky as he was. To grow up in a rich family and be able to attend freaking _balls_ every year of his life.

What was worse about all of this was that while I had divulged even further into my crazy adventures with Dave, I had somehow honestly forgotten about the main reason why I went to college in the first place.

It wasn't for me, or to make something big out of myself. I wasn't doing this to become 'Boss Kailey' like I joked about. I did it so I could return all the favors, love and compassion my family had done for me. All the hours my dad worked to send me to college, and all the tears my mother had watched me cry… still meant something. It just took me a kick in the stomach, by a snot-nosed rich kid, to remind me.

"Fuck that little shit," I hissed through my teeth. I was so beyond pissed that I wanted to kick this table over. Well—not the table with the cupcakes, no way, but maybe the other table. I had to take a few deep breaths and turn my way of thinking around. "He just… doesn't know," I whispered aloud to myself to try and coax my angry feelings away. "He's young still. He doesn't know yet."

"Kailey! I have it!" Dave's giddy voice erupted through my consciousness like a sharp knife cutting through paper. I was dragged briefly from my angry mindset and turned around to see Dave, who was smiling largely at me. "4.5 million dollars! Right in our pockets!" he chuckled to himself, "everything's coming along so perfectly!" It was only then that he paused and settled his expression. "Kailey… what's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong." I responded and attempted to sit up straight.

"Your face is red… have you been crying?"

 _How could he possibly know that?_ If I was irritated like this a long time ago when we first met, he wouldn't have even noticed. Now he could tell if the color in my face had changed? He could tell that I had been crying when _I_ didn't even realize it?

I took the backside of my hand and lightly whipped it across my lower eye. Once I did this, I looked down at it, and realized there were tears leftover that hadn't quite evaporated yet. I found myself turning red, this time from embarrassment.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Dave asked.

"No…" I shook my hand to the side to get rid of the tears that lingered on my hand. "I'll be fine."

Dave looked around the room then, at the conversing people, then to the quartet playing and the many handfuls of couples dancing on the marble floors. After checking the place out, he extended a hand towards me. "Will you dance with me?" he said.

From his sudden suggestion, I was pulled again from my embarrassment and thrown into another state of mind. Like second nature, I found that my arms subconsciously began to wrap around myself. "I don't dance," I stated simply. "I don't really know how."

"You don't have to know how," Dave tried to speak to me softly, but cheerfully as always. "I know how. Just follow my lead. It'll make you feel better. And we can have a cupcake afterwards," he smiled again.

I looked around the room for a second as I hid in my little shell. It seemed kinda intimidating, but whenever my eyes slipped back to look at Dave, his confidence brought me out once more. I hesitantly lifted my arms from around my body and reached out to his hand.

We walked amongst the other guests then, I internally prepping myself before we finally managed to find a spot. The quartet was just now shuffling through their sheets to transition to another song, so prior to the music starting everyone got together, some other people from the sides taking the opportunity to sit up then to join the rest of us on the ballroom floor. A majority of the others that had decided to remain on the sidelines seemed to look towards our general direction, however, which only caused me to become more anxious.

"I don't know if I can do it with all those people watching," I admitted. Even though he had told me I didn't even need to know to do this, I was still nervous.

"Don't look at them, they don't matter," Dave said as he coaxed my head with his hand to look back at him, "just keep your eyes on me. I'll help you."

"Okay…" I muttered. I still felt anxious, but he was right. It made it less weird when I didn't bother paying attention to everyone else and what other people thought. I just focused in on him, and waited for the music to start.

Once it did, he took it easy at first. Which was a good thing because I was still trying to follow his steps. A few seconds into the song was when I seemed to get the rhythm down enough to not trip and make a fool of myself.

"Don't do anything weird," I then stated.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, that weird stretchy shit you do sometimes. People might think something's off."

"They haven't before."

"So, just shut up."

"All right, I'll shut up," he stated, although he seemed to completely dismiss my warning of telling him not to make a spectacle out of himself— _ourselves_ for that matter.

His following smirk should have been a warning for me, but I didn't react in time. I literally had to do nothing when he seemed to push me forward and twirl me around, then with a quick and swift motion he actually dunked me. Like, whatever the hell that is where you fall back and the other person catches you and holds you up.

My face filtered red again, obviously, as I felt a cold feeling sweep through my chest, and then grow warm as it radiated outward into the rest of my upper torso. Those butterflies were back again, only with vengeance. It was like they were radioactive butterflies, which grew even more fluttery when I was in the dip. Even when everyone around seemed to make more _awwws_ I still managed to keep looking at him. Although I'm not sure if that was any better because that uncontrollable erupting flush of red was so obviously plastered to my face that my cheeks were actually starting to grow hot.

"You're better than you think," Dave complimented, though this only made the bugs in my stomach send more shockwaves into me.

"You—you think so?" I stuttered. I don't think I could really talk all that well at the moment.

He didn't say anything though. Next thing I knew I was at his mercy with fancier dance moves that I had no clue what were called to begin with. He seemed to be fluent in this, and despite my initial worries, his stretchy ability helped make it go a little smoother. Although I knew that he wasn't a normal human being, everybody else didn't take notice of this as something that was strange in any way.

After the last note was played and the music stopped, we took our last pose. Immediately upon the quartet ending their song, and likewise our dance, a wave of applause came into being. From that, I finally parted my focus from Dave and around me. I hadn't realized it, but everyone else had made room for us to dance, making me, yet again, another spectacle with 'Dr. Brine'.

I waved shyly at everyone, then managed to deter my slight return of awkwardness when I looked back at Dave. "All right…" I finally sighed, "now let's go back to those cupcakes."

"Sure," Dave responded, continually smiling like a goofball.

We parted our grip onto each other and I walked back over to the cupcake stand, a little faster than Dave, and picked the first chocolate cupcake that looked the most appetizing to me. As I took my first bite Dave cleared his throat.

"By the way…" he started, "I think it's a good time to tell you that we have other plans after this."

"Like what?" I responded slowly, with a full mouth of chocolate.

"To kidnap the penguins in the San Francisco Zoo."

Instead of doing another spit take with the cupcake, I just accepted this inevitability. There was no such thing as a normal day or night out with Dave.

" _Greeaat_ …" I rolled my eyes, "don't rush me though, I'm finishing as many cupcakes as I can. This shit is free."


	16. Shark Tank

For the exception of distant horns from cars passing through the city, the zoo itself was extremely quiet. The clock had just struck past midnight, so the usual crowds of civilians that would have normally been here had since passed a very long time ago. We watched as the last security guard locked the place up for the night, and then disappeared down the sidewalks and into the parking lot to head home. It was only once the coast was clear did we actually proceed with our plan.

"Sylvester, stall one is currently free from the security guards. Head in there and disable the cameras throughout the zoo and unlock the gates," Dave ordered one of his henchmen, who would quickly do as told and leave the van we were in and begin sneaking into the zoo. Dave and I, along with a few more henchmen, waited for what seemed like forever until we saw the dormant nightlights in the zoo flicker, indicating to us that it was time to move.

"Kailey, I need you to hold onto this," Dave said then, reaching behind him into the back window of the van to take something from his henchmen, and then pulled it into the front to show me. Although what he handed me was something I totally was not expecting.

"What is this?!" I said, a little loudly at first, but shushed myself and took my voice level down a notch. "This looks like a freaking bazooka or something!"

"That's because it is a bazooka," Dave responded calmly. "Well, not technically a bazooka that shoots missiles. It shoots nets. We're going to use it to get the penguins."

"Ugh," I sighed and then rolled my eyes. A few of the henchmen got out of the back of the van, along with Dave and I, and we proceeded upward to the entrance of the zoo. Due to Sylvester's initial actions, this left the front gates open for us to head inside and get started quickly on finding the penguins.

I have to admit, as much as I have been through with Dave, this transition had to be one of the weirdest. I mean, only a few hours ago I was in a super fancy dress eating cupcakes, and now I was currently involved in another kidnapping. I kept thinking about how many cupcakes I could have stuffed in a bag or something to take back to the submarine, but realizing that I was going to be taken on another fiasco made me rethink that plan and just leave them instead.

At least he gave me time to change into something else rather than make me do this in another dress. Meanwhile, he didn't bother changing from his clothes whatsoever.

"This thing is heavy," I complained softly as we made our way through the zoo. Dave seemed quiet, yet kind of frustrated as he looked around, seemingly ignoring my complaint for the time being.

"This isn't how I remembered the zoo being before…" Dave muttered to himself.

This took my attention from the heavy bazooka in my arms and around the zoo, where I started taking in more details of the place. It was only then, when I decided to pay mind to my surroundings, did I see a construction sign.

"Looks like the penguin exhibit has been moved into another building," I said out loud. "They're renovating their outdoor exhibit."

"Those good for nothing penguins get renovations to their exhibits?!" Dave spat out, frustration becoming evident now.

I rolled my eyes again. As much as I knew Dave hated these penguins, his constant eruptions on how much he loathed them was getting old, especially here and now, while I was carrying a heavy weapon. "Can we please hurry?" I sighed. I seriously didn't want this to take longer than it needed to.

"Oh, eager are we?" Dave seemed to melt from his angry attitude once he heard me talk. "Now that's what I'm talking about, dearest! Getting into the whole kidnapping thing now, huh?"

"Ughhhhh." I sighed a little harder that time. I could tell him I just wanted to get this over with, but I'd just be wasting my breath. "Yeah, sure, whatever. Just hurry."

Dave chuckled excitedly, and only then did we proceed forward. We followed the signs and made our way to the building just outside to where the penguin exhibits should be. Dave peered through the tiny window on the door, inspecting the situation before we went inside. Afterwards he stepped back and looked upward at the building itself, taking note of a large air duct that sat to the side. "The penguins will see us coming if we go straight through the door," Dave said. "We need to sneak above them, and then attack."

"You got to be kidding me!" I said, exasperated. "I can't climb up a damn wall!"

"Shhh, keep your voice down," Dave responded, "and don't worry about that, I'll carry you."

" _Yayyyyy_." I got as much sarcasm in that as I possibly could. Before I could manage to roll my eyes for the billionth time, Dave's henchmen headed up first, crawling on the sides of the building like, I don't know, Spiderman or something, and then got the side air duct open. Once they disappeared, was when suddenly Dave grabbed hold of me.

"Hang onto the weapon," Dave warned, although this wasn't quite enough to prepare me.

As he started up the side of the building with me in his grasp, I could only keep my eyes on the ground. Wide-eyed and in a sort of petrified state, I watched the ground get further and further away from me. It also freaked me out even more to see 'Dr. Brine' scaling a wall. I knew good and well what he was, but whenever I saw him doing weird shit in his disguise it always freaked me out. My mind was constantly in a state of reminding itself that Dave wasn't actually a human being, so whenever things like this happened it tipped the scale of my mental image of normality to such an extent that I felt like I was dreaming.

Only I wasn't dreaming. I was literally being carried up a flat ass wall by a freaking octopus disguised as a human. Like, how is this even a thing?

"Maybe it would be a good idea just to leave me on guard duty," I chuckled nervously once we got to the side of the air duct. The entrance looked to be big enough for me to fit through, but I didn't particularly like the idea of actually crawling through it.

"Nonsense, I wouldn't leave you out of this for guard duty," he scoffed. "What would be the point in bringing you then? No, you're here for the real stuff. Last time you didn't actually kidnap the penguins, but this time I'm giving you a chance to know how it feels first hand."

I half smiled, attempting to be thankful for what Dave thought was being nice, but instead my attempt at showing gratitude probably ended up looking like I was shitting my pants.

"Follow my henchmen, I'll be right behind you," Dave said, and without prior warning he set me inside the air duct.

I looked down the thing at two of his henchmen, who waved at me gleefully, then took a second to look behind me at Dave, who was doing the same thing. Stuck and without options, I found myself pouting as I started crawling after the little octopuses and followed them throughout the air duct. I don't know how I managed to hang onto the freaking bazooka while I was doing this, but regardless of what I thought my capabilities were beforehand, I was doing it successfully. After a while, we finally made it inside, although this next step blew me completely off guard in regards to what I had to freaking do.

We were up high. And in order to get to the penguin exhibits, we had to walk on metal planks that were a part of the buildings structure to get there. What was also more terrifying is that if I were to fall, it would be directly into one of the tanks below, which had God knows what living in them.

"Screw this, Dave!" I said, and turned my head around swiftly to look back at him.

"You can do it!" Dave urged. "Look, I'm right here with you. Just start outwards and follow my henchmen. The penguins are literally right over there!" Dave pointed across the way to the penguins, who were sound asleep in a little pile on their own personal island. However, all I could look at was the potential fall, along with attempting to see what animals were living in the tanks immediately in front of me, which were separated from the penguin exhibit. As far as I could see, there was nothing there, for the exception of some coral and decorative designs for the sake of the habitat itself.

I took in a deep breath, swallowing hard afterwards, as I watched his henchmen start outward first. Once they were a good distance on the pillars, I placed my first step outward. The pillars were big enough, at least to where I didn't feel like I was walking a freaking tightrope, so that was okay, I guess. I used the large bazooka in my arms as a way to balance myself as I walked, eventually, and successfully, making it over to where the penguins were. We settled ourselves just above them, on a larger platform to get better footing after that.

"Okay, they're all sleeping still," Dave whispered.

This situation, although different in terms of where we were, reminded of the time my dad took me deer hunting a super long time ago when I was still a kid. It was really quiet, and we had to whisper, although despite how we whispered our voices seemed loud in the silent air.

 _Oh God, that just made me feel worse!_ As lovely of a memory that was being with my father, it twisted and intertwined into the situation I was in now, suddenly I feeling bad for any deer we might have killed and now for what was going to happen to these poor ass penguins.

"Okay, dearest, I need you to shoot the penguins," Dave said softly.

"Shoot them!?" I tried to control the volume of my voice despite my outright shock, "I can't freaking shoot them!"

"Yes you can," Dave said. "You got the dead eye in this group, as well as the hand eye coordination. Just do it."

"I've never actually shot a _real_ gun before though!"

"You've shot guns in video games, right?"

"That's not the same thing!"

"Both take hand-eye coordination. In that respect, it's not much different."

Well… he was sort of right with that one. Also, I wasn't technically shooting to kill, so I guess that made it a little better. "I don't know…" I responded, biting my lip nervously soon after.

"If that doesn't convince you, just remember where you come from. You're from Texas. Rootin' tootin' shootin' blood runs through your veins!"

I briefly broke out of my nervous state and looked back at Dave, raising a brow initially and then found myself glaring at him. "You seriously just said that?" I said, "just because I'm from Texas doesn't make me a freaking trigger happy redneck! What's wrong with you?"

"I'm just trying to help," Dave's mouth fell into a frown, realizing he probably messed up. "Just—never mind all that. Shoot the penguins; we don't want to risk waking them up by stalling any longer."

I let off a final sigh before I found myself slowly lifting the bazooka over my shoulder, and peered through the scope. Once the penguins were in sight was when I took another breath, holding it briefly as I aimed, then exhaled after holding it for what it seemed like minutes. Once my aim, my stance, and my state of mind had become relaxed, I pulled the trigger.

The force from the weapon caught me off guard, but I managed to keep my footing. We watched as a large net pelted from the bazooka and stretched outwards to the penguins, in one quick nabbing blow, taking them all into the confines of its prison. The penguins woke up the instant it hit them; suddenly this peaceful and tranquil building erupted into cries. As they struggled, Dave and the henchmen jumped down and started gathering the penguins to heave out of the building.

"Ha! I knew you could do it!" Dave cried cheerfully. He turned his attention to the penguins, and with the help of his henchmen, started taking them upward and back onto the pillars. "All right, Kailey, head back the way we came, we're right behind you."

"And why can't we just take the door?" I asked, although the sound of the hollering penguins drowned out my question. Dave seemed to be way too focused carrying them to hear my statement anyway.

"Uhhh…" I turned around, seeing the straightforward walk that I had walked before, only this time, with the crying penguins, making it now ten times more difficult. However, despite my reappearing fears I started walking outwards, pacing my steps and balancing myself with the bazooka like I had done before. Every few seconds one of the penguins would squawk a little harder, although now that they were right behind me, I could hear their voices.

"What's going on!?" I heard one of them cry, "what's happening!?"

"I'm scared!" One of the younger penguins sobbed.

From their fearful exclamations, I suddenly started to focus more on what they were saying as opposed to my footing. The very instant this happened, was when I misplaced my foot, stepping on some goo left behind from the henchmen, and _slipped off the edge_.

It happened so fast that I don't remember full details of what happened. All I remember was the feeling of brief weightlessness as went I airborne, then with a quick splash was suddenly submerged in cold, artificial salt water. I instantly lost the bazooka to exchange for the freedom to enable my ability to swim back up to the surface. Even though my eyes were struck by the salty water, I kept them open for the sake of seeing what was going on. I couldn't make out much due to the explosion of tiny bubbles around me, so instead of looking around, I finally pushed myself up and broke the water's surface, taking in a deep breath as if it would be my last time.

"Dave!" I cried out. Once the water drained from my ears I could hear the continued cries of the penguins. After a few seconds of that, was when Dave called back to me.

"Kailey, are you hurt?" he asked from above. I finally managed to look up at him. Dave, his henchmen, and the penguins were still safely up high on the planks.

"No!" I responded irritably, "but please tell me why we couldn't have taken the freaking door!"

Just then, my glare at Dave was broken once I saw a splash on the water a few feet away from me. I looked around nervously then as the realization came over me that I wasn't alone in the water. My attention fell to the glass and a transparent sign that read outward towards the outside of the tanks. Although it was backwards, due to me being inside the tank itself, I could read it, but slowly.

"Tiger—Tiger Shark rescue. Samson the Tiger Shark?" The instant I finished reading was the moment my heart briefly stopped. I felt like my entire body was not only becoming engulfed in the continued cold presence on my skin from the water, but now the arrival of cold adrenaline added to that. Like out of some nightmare, I saw a dorsal fin from the creature rise up from the water, and just below that, the massive dark form of the rest of its body beneath the clear water.

"Daveeee," I said as quietly as I possibly could. I proceeded to open my mouth in intent release the loudest scream I could force, but realizing that screaming could very well be the worst thing I could do in this situation, an airy withheld sound escaped from the back of my throat instead. I tried to stay still as the shark started circling me, although quickly I was met with the dilemma that if I wanted to stay still I would sink.

The shark, Samson, moved himself a little higher upwards then, this time his upper face sticking out of the surface of the water. He continued circling, as he started talking.

"She speaks," he said with a very mild surprised tone in his voice. "You don't look like the other zookeepers around here…" He paused as he made his way around me, only finishing his sentence once he got to my front in his circle. "Unless you're not a zoo keeper. No. Of course you're not. Zoo keepers don't steal animals from their exhibits."

"You're not gonna… ehh, eat me? Are you?" I stuttered. That was literally all I was concerned about. Was this seriously how I was going to die? I managed to survive a freaking plane crash and yet getting freaking killed by a shark was how I was going to go. Great. Wonderful.

"No," Samson stated, "that is a huge misconception about sharks. Human's aren't typically on our diet. Too boney. Which is kind of interesting now that you mention it. Do you know how many shark attacks there are in a single year in the US? About nineteen. And of those, there is only a fatality every two years. Can you believe that lighting strikes are more likely to kill someone than a shark attack?" He chuckled sarcastically, then returned to his brooding and almost menacing tone. "But do you know how many people kill sharks each year?"

"No—no…" I stuttered again. I had an idea but I was too scared to answer. Samson let that question linger as he circled around me again, only responding once he could see my face.

"273 million. That's how many your kind have taken from my kin. You hypocrites claim that we're monsters, and yet fail to realize _you're the monsters_. The only reason why I'm here in this tank is because my clan was hunted down, so as a way to preserve me they rescued me and put me in this tank until a suitable home in the wild was found for me." He grunted, anger obviously growing more evident in his dialogue. "Humans. Nothing but a bunch of disorganized abominations! Some claim you want to help but yet you turn around and another wants to kill me. Yes… sharks do not eat humans. But it's taking every ounce of my being to not tear you apart right now!"

Holy shit! What the hell!? I mean, what in God's name kind of situation was I in right now? I was _petrified_. There was no way I would be able to freaking swim fast enough to escape _this!_ Jesus!

As Samson continued to circle me, I found my eyes pleading, looking upwards towards the pillars. The henchmen were alone now, carrying the net of penguins and stuffing it through the vent. Dave, however, was missing from the structures above me. I was starting to grow worried now—he wouldn't have left me… would he?

Just then, and from the side of the tank where the hallway was located, I felt one of Dave's tentacles wrap around my waist and pull me upward. Like a quick snap, everything happened at once. As I was plucked from the water, the shark spun its head at me and clamped its jaws shut, however, missing my foot by only a couple of inches. I managed to strike my foot down onto Samson's nose then, which seemed to do the trick in confusing him. Once I was fully pulled out of the tank was when I was placed on the ground in the hallway directly beside Dave. Once I realized I was out of harm's way, and that Dave was right beside me, did I let my withheld panic escape me.

"Dave! I thought—I didn't know where you were and—"

"It's okay, I'm here!" Dave broke my sentence and placed both of his 'hands' on my shoulder. I managed to take a few deep breaths, calming myself down with every moment I was given, and then dove back into Dave with another big hug.

"You saved me. Again," I said. "Why does it seem like you're able to escape every single death scenario that's been thrown at you?" I parted from the hug after a few moments and looked up at him.

"Just lucky, I guess," Dave smiled, "but of course… I have my motivation. I couldn't let anything happen to you."

Under the faint blue hue from the tanks around us, this could have been a very pleasant conversation. The mood had become light and comforting so quickly, that for a second I had forgotten what I had just gone through.

 _BOOM_ _!_ The sudden quake of a pound on the glass broke what tranquility was left, and tore our attention from each other to look back at Samson's tank.

 _BOOM_ _!_ Samson did it again. With a wild force that I had never seen so up close before, we saw him ram as hard as he could into the glass. My heart started racing once again upon feeling the sheer hatred and power in this shark as it rammed.

"He's not going to… break that, is he?" I asked.

"Of course not!" Dave responded, attempting to be chipper in the face of the situation. "I lived in a tank long enough to realize those things are full-fledged unbreakable."

 _BOOM! CREEEEEK!_ The shark had rammed into the glass a third time, only this time the glass actually started to crack. Tiny streams of water started to escape these cracks, this in itself and itself alone causing me to panic.

"We should go," I stated, taking my attention off of Dave and started hauling ass to the door. We only made a couple leaping footsteps towards the door, although literally almost there, when another pound sounded. Following the pound, I heard breaking glass and the rushing sound of water spilling from the tank.

"SHIT!" I yelled. I grabbed the doorknob, pulled open the door, and crammed myself through the entry, spinning around to let Dave through the door, too. Briefly, I saw the waves start crashing down the hall, with a big ass Tiger Shark riding them like something out of freaking Sharknado, and then closed the door. The locked door somehow managed to contain the huge blast of water, leaving us room to get the hell out of there as fast as we could.

"My henchmen will be in the van waiting for us with the penguins!" Dave said as we ran. "We'll head straight to the submarine and pretend none of this ever happened. If anything people will think the shark ate the penguins when he broke out of his tank!"

I rolled my eyes again. Even soaking wet and having just escaped death for the billionth time, Dave always seemed to return to his chipper, confident self. How he did it? Who the hell knows.

. . . . . . .

Very softly in the speakers of the van, the _Safety Dance_ was playing once more as we drove from the San Francisco Zoo and back to the submarine. Although there still were a good handful of cars out this late at night, it wasn't nearly as busy as I had anticipated. The lack of cars on the roads made the place look strangely like something straight out of a horror movie. The streetlights illuminated the roads just enough to where we could see the yellow and white lines on the streets. There were some people walking around too, although these individuals appeared only every few blocks. Despite this I still felt extremely vulnerable. I shivered in my seat as I wrapped my arms around myself, watching Dave attempt to coordinate through the city to make it back to where the sub was located.

"It would probably be easier to use a GPS or something," I said.

"No, I remember the way," Dave responded. "We'll be back soon enough."

A bump on the road caused the van to jump slightly, shaking everyone inside a bit in one quick wave. Because of the bump, the penguins in the back started crying again, causing Dave to turn around swiftly and bang on the back of the truck.

"Gentleman, keep them quiet back there!" Dave yelled, "and Mariah, carry the penguins into the submarine when we get there. Jim, carry the penguins with her and get them into their cells! I want to make sure they're locked up before we settled down for the night."

Despite being on the verge of freezing my ass off I managed to smile. Those damn celebrity puns. _Pffft_. It's just a shame Dave didn't understand what he was saying, then maybe he'd laugh, too.

As we drove a stop sign was coming up. I kept quiet as we drove up to it, but once I realized we weren't slowing down was when I spoke up.

"Hey, Dave!" I said, although it was too late. We had slipped right past the stop sign. Despite being literally criminals I still couldn't help but worry about obeying the road rules to a certain degree. "Dave, you ran a stop sign, watch out!"

"There's nobody around!" Dave responded, "I'm just trying to get us home."

"Yeah, but you're forgetting that we have a bunch of stolen penguins in the back and we can't afford to—" My train of thought was broken when I suddenly saw red and blue lights flicker behind us and come out from an alley we had apparently missed. It only took a few seconds before a cop was literally right behind us attempting to pull us over.

"Dave!" I fussed as I slapped his shoulder, "what the hell are we going to do now?!"

"Everyone, shush the penguins!" Dave turned his head briefly to send another command to his henchmen, and then returned his attention to the road. He started pushing on his breaks then, coming to a stop just before the red light ahead.

"What are you doing?" I gasped as I took my arms that were once around my body and tangled them around my face in frustration. I didn't know what to do with myself, really. The shark was enough, now we had to deal with a _cop?_

"I can handle this," Dave grinned at me, "remember who we are. I think the cop will let this pass."

"We're freaking soaking wet in a strange van! How is that normal, regardless of who we are?"

The sound of the cop getting out of his car caught my attention as I snapped from fussing at Dave and grew quiet. I tried keeping my gaze looking at the front dash as the cop approached, sticking his flashlight into our faces as he inspected us and the inside of the car. Luckily all the henchmen were in the back, and were managing to keep the penguins quiet, but that still wasn't enough. I don't know how we could look normal in this situation.

It took a second, but the cop finally figured out who we were. "Dr. Brine?" he asked in a straightforward tone of voice, although surprise could be heard in his question, "wow, this'll be an interesting story to tell to the rest of the precinct. It's not everyday someone gets to pull over Dr. Brine."

I rolled my eyes. Good lord. People loved Dr. Brine so much that he was literally able to get away with everything.

"Why are you folks wet though?" the cop asked next.

I tilted my head slightly towards Dave to give him a signal that he was in control. As I waited, he briefly took a moment of silence to conjure up a lie. "We were… at the beach! Studying clams!" he explained.

_He stole my freaking idea! What the hell? He couldn't be original enough to come up with his own lie?_

"Ah, I see…" the cop nodded his head, buying the lie rather easily, "I guess I'll let you go on your way—"

" _SQUACK!_ " One of the penguins in the back erupted into another fit. Although the cry was brief, it was still enough to cause caution in the cop who, moments earlier, was just about to let us leave. His relaxed mannerisms exchanged quite instantly to suspicion, as he shined the flashlight deeper into the vehicle and behind us, where a small window stood between the back of the van, and us.

"What are you carrying?" The cop asked, this time friendliness in his tone having since disappeared.

Crap! Dammit why does this always have to happen!? Why can't we just do something and it go smoothly? Seriously, flying out of helicopters, embarrassing the shit out of myself, crashing in airplanes, and literally all of the above and beyond is not exempt for me.

I found myself growing worried again. My abilities, however, to keep myself calm were showing prowess in the face of certain arrest, nonetheless.

"Oh… um, just some cargo boxes for the labs. We took some clam samples from the beach. They're probably just moving around." Dave kept up with his lie, although the cop wasn't satisfied with the answer. Hell, I wouldn't even believe that. What in the ever living shit kind of clam would make that horrific sound?

"I need to inspect the back of your vehicle, Dr. Brine. Please step out of the vehicle," the cop ordered. Despite how I was internally freaking out, Dave managed to stay calm.

"Very well," Dave unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car as told. I watched him go around the van with the cop, very much anticipating him to beat the ever living shit out of the cop or something and then make some sort of getaway. Because of that, I literally had my eyes glued onto them. I was anticipating that scenario to happen so badly that it had already become real in my brain. I had to see it happen. Despite as horrible as it would be, I needed to see it happen. I don't really know why, but I just did.

Once they got to the back of the truck and I could no longer see them, I twisted my body around and looked at the window towards the back. It was dark, so I couldn't see much of anything, until the doors at the back of the van opened.

The faint light from the street lamps illuminated the back just enough for me to see what was going on, although the instant the back was met with this light, so it was also met with the light of the cop's flashlight. What I saw on my end, however, literally made me stop breathing as I anticipated the worst.

The henchmen were stacked on top of each other, much like a brick wall, and covered the net of penguins in front of them and in between us. I could see the cop shine his light on them, very faintly the flashlight's rays creeping through the cracks in between henchmen, but other than that, there was no sudden exclamation of terror.

"Hmmm… nothing back here but creates, just like you said," the cop mumbled to himself. I didn't understand it. How did he not see those octopuses right in front of him? Was he blind? "I'll let you folks go then. No ticket, just take this as a warning. No more running stop signs."

"Of course, officer," Dave kissed ass one last time as I heard the cop pace away and back to his vehicle. Once he drove past us and disappeared down the street was when I launched myself out of the van to meet Dave at the back. I looked into the back of the van, harshly, even rubbing my eyes a few times to try and decipher what the hell just happened.

The henchmen had changed their color so specifically that it literally looked like the back of the truck. In front of them were a few crates, and that was it. If I had not known any better I would have thought the van was empty too.

"How-how did? _What even_?" I stuttered.

"You forget things too easily, dearest," Dave responded to my confusion. "I have everything under control. You don't ever need to worry."


	17. Random Acts of Kindness

"You're in your UNDERWEAR!" some snot nosed kid yelled at me from an immensely large crowd.

Yes, I was having one of _those_ kinds of dreams. Since when? God only knows. I haven't had a dream like this in years, but regardless, here I was... in a dream, in my underwear and standing in front of a large crowd of people pointing fingers at me. They weren't laughing at me, like these dreams typically went, but instead were scowling at me.

Despite being fully aware that I was in a dream, I felt exposed. Horrified, I covered myself in a desperate attempt to make the dream less awkward, but it didn't do much to stop the angry crowd, which was slowly starting to turn into an angry mob.

"You're the bad guy!" the same little kid yelled again. "She's the one! She's the one that's been stealing the penguins!"

"It wasn't my fault!" I tried to plea, "I didn't ask for this to happen, I'm just…" As I talked I began to realize that maybe it _was_ my fault. Despite that it was all Dave's idea I still was allowing it to happen. But what was I supposed to do? _Stop helping Dave_? I couldn't just stop! I don't know—I guess I could but that felt _wrong_.

Suddenly, the crowd in front of me fell into a forming black hole. As the dark pit grew deeper and deeper the civilians started turning into thousands of sharks, seemingly splashing in the dark as if the dark pit itself had become a pool of black tar. From high above, I stared at them, horrified, as I took a few steps back to avoid falling in.

"You could have stopped this," a familiar voice spoke from behind me then. "Dave trusts you. You can put an end to all of this."

I turned around, only then, to see Private. He seemed so real, despite being only a figment of my imagination. Soon after, his brothers peered from behind him, coming into my psyche like building particles that soon took their form. Unlike Private, who was calm, they were angry.

"She's a bad guy, Private," Skipper said. "She's not going to take your advice."

"I'm not a bad guy!" I responded. Although there was so much more I could have said, I felt like my voice was muffled. It was hard to talk.

"You're a bad guy," Kowalski confirmed. " _Good guys don't steal penguins from their exhibits_."

In the background and along with Kowalski's voice, I suddenly heard Samson mimic his words from the tank incident. I turned around, and there, in the pit, the thousands of sharks were now replaced with Samson himself, only now he was so large he was taking up almost the entire pit itself.

"You'll get yours," Skipper said from behind me.

Just then, without warning the footing beneath me suddenly gave in, causing me to fall into the dark hole. Samson opened his jaws as I plummeted, although before his teeth clamped shut I woke up.

My eyes shot open, but I remained laying there, stiff like a mummy. My heart was racing and my breathing was deep, which then caused me to sit up. After a few moments of comforting myself was when I figured I'd get up and head to the kitchen areas to get a glass of water. I figured if I tried to go right back to sleep I'd only go back into the same dream, which happened quite often. I wasn't going to risk that.

I opened the door of my quarters and walked down the dark halls of the submarine, although the only thing that lit my path were very dim red lights built along the hallways. There were no henchmen walking around or experiments going on like what normally went on during the day.

Everything was silent. For the exception of the familiar cries of the penguins.

As I walked towards the kitchen areas, I found myself slowing down to listen. I heard the continued sobs of some of the younger penguins at first, though in the mix I could hear Kowalski talking to the newcomers that we had just kidnapped at the San Francisco Zoo, along with the ones from the Houston Zoo.

"No, Dave isn't going to kill us," Kowalski said, "he's going to turn us into monsters using his Medusa Serum."

"I wouldn't be surprised if we died anyway from hunger!" Skipper intervened.

"Impossible. We're getting enough daily rations that will manage to keep us alive," Kowalski explained, "unless we starve ourselves on purpose."

Suddenly another sob erupted from one of the younger penguins. Through the midst of their cries the feelings I had in my dream were returning. I suddenly got the idea to head into the kitchen areas and nab an armful of RJ's Cheezy Dibble snacks. I don't know how nutritious human puff chips would be for penguins, but hearing them talk about rations and stuff was unbelievable.

Once I drank my water and got hold of the Cheezy Dibbles, I returned to the penguin keeping area. The minor movement of opening the doors, however, caught everyone's attention. They were very much wide awake from the beginning, so any sort of movement in the room, let alone the doors full blown opening, was enough to catch their attention.

"What do you want?" Skipper said bitterly. I stood there briefly as I looked over the many cages of penguins. They were all stuffed together in threes in a single cage, although Rico was an exception, and was caged alone to the side and away from the others. "Wait—are those… what I think they are?" Skipper's tone changed, only mildly however, when he caught a glimpse of what was in my arms.

"They're Cheezy Dibbles," I stated. "I didn't know what else to feed you…"

"Oh, Benjamin's Bifocals! Thank goodness!" Kowalski seemed to be overcome with emotion, breaking from his typical intellectual persona in the face of these things. The other penguins did the same, even the ones from the other zoos, as a sort of temporary relief was finally bestowed onto them.

I walked over and handed a bag into each cage. It wasn't quite enough to give them a feast, but I figured they deserved something to eat with that entire talk about rations.

"Whatever you're doing… it's not going to make us forgive you," Skipper said through a full mouth of Cheezy Dibbles.

"I figured that much," I responded quietly. "Look. Are your rations really that low?"

"Of course they are!" Skipper erupted, again, with a full beak. "We're only getting three buckets of fish per cage a day!"

"Wait… three buckets? That doesn't sound too bad," I asked, then scratched my head.

"Technically we're being fed enough," Kowalski responded, although Skipper dived into the conversation again.

"Well, _technically_ ," Skipper scoffed. "But who cares! Go ahead and tell us, _Kyle_ , what you're doing here!"

"I thought you weren't getting fed enough, so I snuck you in some food," I responded.

"Lies!" Skipper put in with a continued muffled mouth. "You wouldn't give us food unless it was to your gain. You're a bad guy after all!"

Calling me a bad guy stirred discomfort in me, although I managed to push it aside after a second or two in order to continue the conversation. "I'm not a bad guy," I stated.

"But you are a criminal," Kowalski added.

"Fine, I'm a criminal!" My voice grew a little loud that time from frustration, causing an echo to distribute through the large room. My eyes shifted around, making sure that loud epiphany wasn't enough to awaken any of the henchmen, and then I turned my attention back to the penguins.

"If you're not a bad guy, then I suggest you get out of here when you have the chance. Dave's just using you for his revenge, and it's only going to get worse," Skipper added then.

"That's not true." I narrowed my eyes at him. "We're partners. He's not using me for anything."

"Really? Because it sure looked like it before."

"He's _not_ using me," I hissed sternly. "At least… I don't _think_ he is."

"Dory is all about his revenge," Skipper explained. "Always has, always will be."

"Maybe… maybe you're right," I gave in a little. I mean, Dave was willing to put me in harm's way, multiple times even, to go about his revenge crap. I don't know, really. Maybe I was expendable like I had constantly told myself. The fake ring thing just confirmed that.

"He'll keep you around as long as he needs to." Skipper shoved another wing full of Cheezy Dibbles into his mouth.

"I think he trusts her," Private said. When he suddenly talked like that, this caused the other penguins to turn their attention from me and to him alone. It was almost like surprise became evident in Skipper and Kowalski's eyes. Whatever negative comments they had been throwing at me was suddenly blocked by the single, somewhat positive comment, coming from Private. "I don't think he'd be willing to get rid of her that easy," Private confirmed lastly.

"What makes you say that, Private?" Kowalski asked.

"I don't know… I can just tell. Sort of like how you guys keep me around."

"Of course we keep you around!" Skipper perked up a little, although that surprise factor was pushed to the edge with his last comment. "We keep you around because you're a valued member of this team!"

"Only recently," Private added, his little eyes lowering to the ground momentarily. "You're my brothers, so I know you'd keep me around regardless, but to be completely honest I had to prove myself to you guys before I became more than just… the cute mascot."

Kowalski and Skipper exchanged glances, the room growing quiet for a brief time. Even the other penguins found themselves in a moment of silence.

"You mean more to us than that. You know that, Private." Skipper stopped eating the Cheezy Dibbles.

"Of course I know that," Private added. "Although it's good to be fully apart of the team now." Then he sat up and waddled to the front of the cage to look at me. As he did, his brothers moved aside to let him pass. "Kailey, I know Kowalski and Skipper keep telling you that you're a bad guy, but you don't have to be. You're not like Dave. I know when the time comes you'll make the right decision."

I honest to God had no idea how to respond. While the other penguins kept showing their distrust towards me, Private was actually taking the time to stand up for me, and even tell me straight forward how I wasn't bad. I mean, I know I'm not bad. But… simply putting a break on what I've been doing would be ridiculous. I didn't even know _how_ to tell Dave when to stop. I just sort of went along with it. Of course, I've given the thought of bringing up how weird this whole revenge thing was, countless times, and have obviously retaliated, but usually all that I ended up being able to say was something stupid, like, on the lines of asking for guard duty or doing paper work.

But this right here, what Private was implying, was the first time anyone had tried suggesting that to me. Stop Dave? Like, what the _hell_ would that do? Regardless if Dave thought of me as his assistant and partner, what the hell was I alone supposed to do? Tell him to stop? _Stop Dave, don't hurt the penguins, ugh!_ Like… no. That wouldn't work. At all. Shit, I don't know! I knew kidnapping penguins was bad and stuff, but geez. This was really hard to absorb.

Just then I heard the sound of doors opening somewhere down the submarine. Some of the henchmen were obviously waking up now, which indicated it was already the very early hours of the morning. I figured I'd go ahead and get a few more hours of sleep and then get ready for the day. Although leaving the penguins in their cages was a little harder that time than normal.

. . . . . . .

Drew and Kevin, two of the octopuses' names I managed to remember, were up in the command bay booting up some of the computers. I was sitting on one of the chairs watching them, although my gaze itself wasn't exactly _on_ them. Despite that my eyes were glued onto what they were doing my mind was constantly going in and out of reality, continually falling back onto the recent events I had gone through.

I thought about the penguins, of course, but also the shark, and the bitchy little boy from the ball the night prior. Thinking about Christopher made me think about what he said, and then that lead to me thinking about my parents. It had been an extremely long time since I've talked to them. Well, technically it had only been less than a week since I last saw them when we had dinner together, but it _felt_ like a long time. I usually tried to convince myself that everything was okay, and I just needed to focus on my work to not feel bad, but I guess after a while that slowly stopped working.

I had to get used to going long periods without my mom's advice, for example, when I went off to college. But then, and even now, I still had that urge to talk to her.

Drew and Kevin gobbled at each other once the computers were booted, then left down the hatch back into the innards of the submarine. This left me alone with the computers to myself. Since the henchmen still had my confiscated phone somewhere, I couldn't just call my mom with that. However, I could call her with the video cam. It acted a lot like Skype anyway, so I could call whatever number I wanted. I could check in on her, and see how things were going.

Sitting up, I instantly made the decision to call her. I opened the program and typed my old house number into the contacts, then pressed the call button. The tone ringed a few times, over and over. I was initially going to assume she wouldn't pick up, as usual, but once her voice overcame the line, I felt my heart grow large in my chest. It was almost like it had sighed, if hearts itself could show emotion.

" _Hello_?" Her first word was so comforting as they eased out of the loudspeakers. Despite that this was technically a voice call, and not a video call, the absence of her face on the blank computer monitor didn't matter. Hearing her was as good as anything.

"Mom, it's me," I said softly. I was already trying to control tears from falling out of my eyes.

"Kailey? Kailey, is that really you? What number are you calling from?"

"The office," I responded. Telling her I was calling from the submarine would still be a little too weird to mention, even though I'm pretty sure people already knew how Dave got around.

"Oh, that's nice!" She was trying to be excited for me, "you have your own office then?"

"Yeah… I do actually." That wasn't really a lie. "But I want to know about what's going on. How are you and Dad doing?"

"Oh, the usual," Mom signed a little. "I'm just cleaning up after all these damned cats, and your dad is working hard. He's having problems again at work though. He's trying to get another bid for a job in and I think it's stressing him out."

"He's not taking it out on you, is he?" I asked. I couldn't help but ask that. He often got mad at us in a way that was redirecting all of his frustration from work.

"Since you aren't around he's been taking it out a little more on me, yes," Mom admitted. "But it will pass. Just pray for him, okay? Let's hope that he gets the bid."

"I will…" Despite my efforts there was that one stupid tear that had to fall out of my eye and drip down my cheek. I quickly used the back of my hand to get rid of the thing, though that just smudged it on my face a little more, causing the droplet to feel like it imbedded into my makeup. I'm pretty sure I would have a little 'stream' on that side of my face until I decided to fix it later.

"Tell me how you've been?" Mom then asked. "I know we just saw each other recently but I really miss you around here. It seems really quiet. I have the cats but… you know. It's a little different when your children leave."

"I'm sorry, Mom…" I said.

"Don't be sorry! You don't need to stick around here anyway. You got a life going for you elsewhere."

I tried ignoring her comment. Thinking about it just made me sad. "Well… I've mostly been counting up donations. We recently got a big check from a donor in San Francisco."

"Ohhh, how much did ya get?"

"You're not going to believe me."

"Really? Just say it."

"4.5 million."

"Wow…" Her voice grew low, obviously surprised. "I know that money is supposed to go into Octavius's business, but that would be nice to have that kind of money… although, speaking of, when are you getting me that house you promised?" She chuckled after her comment.

"I'm working on it!" I felt my face turn red, not really because of embarrassment but because of how out of the blue the question was. It was like another wet towel being thrown in my face; that reminder of what I've wanted to do but hadn't quite gotten there yet. "… I technically haven't been given my first paycheck."

" _Still?_ " Mom said. "Tell that damned man of yours to pay you! You might be his fiancé but you're still working for him!" I could tell she was joking when she said that, so it was a little funny.

"Yeah, all right, I will," I chuckled.

"I know you'll do good, Kailey. I'm so proud of you," Mom said then. Her words seemed to contrast between her last statement. She didn't do that often, but when she did, it was always strange to hear it. She could act so happy, and then the next she was almost sad. I just wish I could be there with her. Just one big hug would be all I need to get through another week.

"I love you," I said then. I felt another raw wave of tears come at my eyes like water at a floodgate. The pressure in my eyes was causing a burning sensation all around my upper face. I didn't want her to hear me cry though, so I held it back.

"I love you too. Call me again sometime, okay? I better make your dad some coffee before he heads out."

"Okay," was all I managed to respond, before she hung up. When the call ended, instantly, what familiarity I felt along with hearing her voice left me. With the absence of that comfort, I felt alone. It was like looking around after your friends had left your house, or seeing a theater once filled with a crowd having since passed. It was that empty feeling—that something was missing.

"Kailey?" Hearing my name being said so suddenly, especially in my current state of mind, slowly melted what cold feelings of loneliness that started to overcome me. I wiped my eyes as dry as I could, and sucked what tears I had waiting to be unleashed back. I still felt as if they were glistening however, but there was no getting rid of that quick enough. Instead I sat up straight, and turned around only when I felt as if I had myself under control.

"Yeah?" I responded. It was Dave. Upon seeing him I uncontrollably clasped my hands together and started twiddling my thumbs around one another. "How long have you been there?" I asked awkwardly.

"Long enough," he admitted.

Silence lingered in between us for a few moments before I managed to speak. I was still trying to get control of my emotions enough to act professionally, but it wasn't working as well as I had hoped.

"Is there anything you need?" I asked after a decent time of delay.

"I've been thinking…" he started softly. Dave having a gentle voice like this was different. I don't think I've heard him talk to me like this before. "Your parents… they work really hard, don't they?"

"They do."

Another long pause.

"I've decided I want to help. I'm going to be sending them 50% of the donations we just received from Mr. Harris. I'm sure that will be enough to get them out of their situation… and into that new house."

"W-what did you just say?" Was I dreaming? Was this even real? I didn't really believe it at first. "What's 50% of 4.5 million?"

"About 2.25 million," Dave said.

I felt like my legs wanted to give out from under me. Whatever composure I had tried to keep up, suddenly crept out from under me like the sudden pull of a chair being snatched from under you while you were going to sit down. That burning feeling returned to my eyes, only this time I felt tears stream down my face. Even when I tried managing something as simple as a smile, my lips trembled instead. I was so overwhelmed that I didn't know what to say. Never in my life would I have thought that someone would be this kind. To _me_.

I tried with all my might to force a proper sentence out of my mouth, but it took me time. Even when I did manage to speak, some sobs escaped me. "You… didn't have to do that," I muttered slowly. I felt my face turn bright red then. Among my hundreds of stirring emotions, embarrassment always found its way to the forefront. I hated it when people saw me cry. Dave was no exception, really.

"Of course I didn't have to do it," Dave continued to respond gently. His words seemed to linger in the air as he spoke, almost coming off as something out of a dream, or from a distance, despite how he was in the same room as me. "I _wanted_ to," he finished.

All my life I had always thought that the best kinds of gifts are the ones people give you without having to tell them. Even Dave, who seemingly only cared about himself, had somehow done that for me. Those doubts that had crossed my mind throughout the morning from the conversation with the penguins suddenly fell into the background. If I was just his assistant to be thrown away when he saw fit, why would he do something like this? He wouldn't, that's why. This proved it, more than anything.

My heart seemed to grow light as it was overcome with a cold wave of those familiar flutters. This time, I didn't do anything to stop it.


	18. Mermaid Masquerade

Dave had been talking about going to see some guy named Mr. Malik Issa that would be selling us parts for the special 'project' that the henchmen were currently building back in New York. The order had been placed in rather hastily, although the guy had stated it would be ready in less than a week. That meant we had to rush from San Francisco to meet him in Las Vegas. However, because of our rush, we ended up getting there way too early.

I didn't mind the low days though, don't get me wrong. It just seemed as if Dave was doing this on purpose. Wasting time? Taking me to different places? Las Vegas, no less. Eh, I didn't want to think about it too hard.

We ended up checking in at the Mirage Hotel. Obviously. It was painfully embarrassing when it came to the places Dave picked. He could have chosen, I don't know, something else, but he had to choose the one hotel most famous for the aquariums.

I was beginning to worry as we walked in, hoping there wouldn't be an instant sighting of some cute animal that he'd proceed to harass. Luckily, in the front there were just a lineup of exotic fish in the tanks behind the counter. We checked in rather quickly, though while the hotel workers started to carry our luggage up the elevators was when I ended up taking in all of my surroundings as opposed to paying attention to heading up after the baggage clerks.

"What the actual—" I cut myself off as I narrowed my eyes to further inspect a poster hanging up just to the side of the counter. Its large and colorful letters said 'Mermaid Fantasy' while at the bottom depicting a red haired mermaid, looking like a rip off of _The Little Mermaid 's_ Ariel to be completely honest, while a bunch of cute sea animals surrounded her, one species in particular being penguins. To the upper corners of the artwork was some lady with piercing dark eyes, hiding in the shadows like a stalker, while at the other corner was some blonde guy with Superman hair and buff arms. It was apparently a show of some kind that the hotel was hosting in their new tank.

"Who the ever living shit would watch something like _that?_ " I muttered. This finally caused Dave to walk over, and join me in our stare at the poster. Although, instead of him questioning the entertainment tastes of humans like I was currently doing, he instantly grew tense.

Shit. _He had to notice the stupid penguins on the poster._

"Excuse me," Dave asked the desk clerk, "what is this? A show?"

"Yes, it is. They're actually putting it on tonight in the new tank they recently built earlier this year," the clerk responded. "It's technically a water ballet. Some noobie director that just started working here is putting on the show."

"And the hotel has… _penguins_ here?" I could tell Dave was trying to keep up his Dr. Brine persona, although his eye twitched momentarily.

Yay. Right when I thought I was going to go about a day without having to worry about penguins, _this happens_.

"Yes…" the clerk apparently could see Dave acting funny, but she didn't do much to stop it. "We got a lot of new animal attractions since they upgraded the existing tanks and added more throughout the building and outward towards the stage area. It's pretty high tech. The tank doors open and close at the top within the tanks, and everything."

" _How interesting,_ " Dave said intensely through clenched teeth. He was trying really hard. The poor guy. I almost felt sorry for him for having to be such a jealous ass all the time. "You mind if we look around the exhibits?" Dave then asked.

"Of course; feel free to go about at your leisure. However, be aware that there are portions of the tanks that are still closed off. Security can get pretty angry with folks that don't listen to the signs."

Dave grabbed one of my hands at that moment, keeping on his cringe as he looked at the desk clerk. "Come along, dearest," Dave said to me. “Let's look around, shall we?"

"Uhhhh…" I didn't really know if responding was all that smart right now. I just did as Dave asked and followed him away from the front and towards the back, where the added exhibits beyond the pool areas were.

Once we got to the new 'stage' it literally reminded me of something from Sea World. There was a gargantuan tank, leveled high above the seats in front of it, obviously made to showcase whatever was swimming in it. Unlike Sea World though, it had a habitat built within it. Coral and other pretty decorations filled the tank, making it look like a literal mermaid lagoon or something. To the upper corners on the outside of the tank were doorways, leading to what was obviously a feed that connected this giant stage to the rest of the new tanks scattered among the place. It basically was all one giant aquarium, all connected throughout the hotel and beyond, with doors that opened and closed to let the animals in and out of their designated areas.

 _SQUEAK KAKAKAKA!_ The sound of dolphins somewhere in one of the other tanks rang out, followed by a splash. From that in itself, Dave seemed to hunch over and puff up with irritability.

"Ugh… dolphins," Dave said disdainfully.

"What's wrong with dolphins?" I asked inquisitively. “I thought it was penguins you hated."

"Dolphins are considered _cute_ ," Dave said with strain in his voice, "and I know how terrible they are. I've actually tried working with one before for parts to rebuild my submarine. The only reason I did attempt to work with him was his hatred for penguins too, but I decided against it at the last minute, and turned to Mr. Issa for my needed resources instead."

"You worked with a dolphin?" I tried imagining that. It was really difficult, however. I started to smile as I imagined Dave conversing with a dolphin that propped itself up on its tail fins to walk on land. How that was even possible? I don't know. I just let my imagination run wild.

"I'd rather not talk about him," Dave spat out hatefully and then rolled his eyes. "Let's focus on the now… where are the penguins, you think?"

" _Oh, no. Oh, no no no no no._ " I felt like I wanted to blast off into the sky and disappear with a ding. "I am not going to kidnap any more penguins," I said firmly.

"I wasn't planning on it," Dave confirmed, "although I don't think I need your help on this one. I'll just call in my henchmen now, and snatch the penguins up while the security isn't around."

"Dave!" I cried out loud. I couldn't believe this. He was seriously going to jump immediately into kidnapping more penguins? "Dave look, you can't just go into this without planning ahead. You of all people should know that!"

"It'll be easy," Dave responded casually, as he started walking up the sides and towards the doors in the upper corners of the room. "You look around the tanks and keep at a standby. I'm going to do this quickly."

"Dav—" I tried calling his name out one last time, but was cut off once he disappeared behind the doors. I looked around the large tank area, and then upward at the sky. "He better get this done quickly…" I whispered to myself. "It's gonna get dark in a few hours." And of course, when that happened, this place was going to be packed for the show.

. . . . . . .

I had been walking along the sides of the tanks further within the newly built exhibits ever since he disappeared. I had no idea where he was, since the place was so incredibly large, so finding Dave around here might as well be like finding a needle in a haystack.

I figured he would pop up sometime, and tell me that everything had gone as planned, but alas. I was still left beside the blue tanks, in the quiet corridors of the many hallways of the exhibits, listening to the water pat gently against the glass. Among that gentle pat of water, the lights flickered, and then I heard the sound of doors closing. It wasn't a typical door sound, but more like a crane moving, or the sound of those big ceilings in some baseball stadiums as they clamped shut. I didn't really think much of the sound though, as weird as it was in comparison to the rest of the place. Following that sound, however, I could hear a family walking the halls.

"Where are the penguins?" I heard a little girl cry. "I want to see the penguins!"

Just then, the family came from around the maze of connected tanks. Two little girls and their parents walked them along the exhibits, the smaller little girl crossing her arms around herself tightly while showcasing a pout.

"The penguins might be getting ready for the show tonight, sweetie," the dad responded kindly. "Why don't you look at the fish for now?"

"No! I want to see the penguins!" While the little sister continued to exhale a series of bitchy cries, her elder sister, by only a few years, kept looking at the tanks. The older girl was quiet, as she scanned the water in attempts to ignore her sister, but soon all that frustration was expelled once she gasped from seeing something in the tank.

"Dad! Mom! Look!" the elder sister said, although her tone was more or less filled with shock than excitement.

I turned from them and looked into the tanks at her comment. Swimming up quickly was Dave out of his disguise. He looked panicked as he splatted against the glass in front of me, all his tentacles sprawled out and everything, as he looked at me desperately. From his giant showcase, the family came up and joined me in their stare, although unlike me, who was currently starting to freak the hell out, the dad tried to take this as an opportunity to cheer up the little girl.

"Look, it's an octopus!" the dad exclaimed. "He came to see this lady, isn't that neat?"

While they talked, Dave continued to look at me, wide-eyed, and still sprawled out against the glass. I didn't know what to do whatsoever, though. I couldn't exactly talk to him while this family was here, so I just continued looking at him, the both of us in a sort of mutual and silent thousand-yard stare as if we both just saw a ghost.

"I DON'T CARE, I WANT TO SEE PENGUINS!" the little girl cried again. Normally, I would have wanted to punch yet another child in the face, though Dave looking at me like this through the glass deterred any urge to act upon those feelings of irritability.

"That's it!" The dad gave in as if something had just snapped. He grabbed the little girls arm, and started tugging her down the hallway. "We're not going to the show tonight; how's that? And we're not going to get ice cream anymore!"

"But dad, it wasn't my fault. Don't punish me too!" The older little girl spoke up, although her mother placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. Once the mother had reassured the older girl this wasn't being directed at her, was when the dad continued to fuss.

"We're going back to the room now!" the dad yelled. Boy he was pissed.

"AURGHHHHHHHAAAHHHHH!" The little girl hollered loudly. I swear, was something that tiny capable of emitting such a horrific sound? It was like a mixture of dying puppies and Golem from the _Lord of the Rings_ screeching at poor Hobbits.

The hollers slowly faded after the family had disappeared into the maze of tanks, leaving me with Dave to finally figure out what was going on.

"Dave! What the hell?!" I gasped, although keeping in mind of exactly how loud I was just in case there was anyone else around.

He started talking, but I couldn't hear him. I wasn't the best at reading lips either, so I just watched his mouth move, standing there like a dumb ass before he stiffened again.

"I… I can't hear you," I said, getting closer to the glass and propped myself against the tank itself.

I could see him mouth " _What?_ " but that was it. I proceeded to put my face up to his in attempts to make myself heard through the glass.

"I SAID, I CAN'T UNDERSTAND YOU!" I said loudly and slowly so Dave could hear me.

He ended up facepalming himself, and then settled on the tank floors, stirring up soot in the process. He moved his tentacles around, as if trying to act out what was happening, but that didn't really help at all. From what it looked like, he was just telling a story about a box that freaked out a lot.

"WHAT?" I responded.

He was getting frustrated, but I couldn't blame him. All his tentacles bundled up at the ends as if they were each making fists of irritation, and then he took a deep breath to calm himself. After he managed to gain control of his composure was when he pointed to my left, at another one of the doors that lead into the 'employees only' areas.

"You want me to go in there?" I asked.

He nodded.

Great. Just wonderful. He had told me I didn't need to get involved in this kidnapping whatsoever, but here I was, being asked to do yet something else illegal. I'll admit, it wasn't as illegal-ish as outright stealing the penguins themselves, but I still was going somewhere where I was specifically told not to.

I let the biggest pout I could conjure up appear onto my face, and then started walking limply towards the door. I made sure to look around first, as to make sure nobody was around, and then opened it. I saw Dave swim up along with me, disappearing further into the tank to where I could apparently meet him on the other side. With that, I started up a staircase to a large and very simplistic control room. Below me was the tank, though it was covered with a large cap. That must be what I heard from before. The door to the tanks had shut, trapping Dave inside the exhibits.

I looked around quickly once I connected the dots. I needed to open the doors in the tanks to let Dave out. I instantly saw a large switch to the right and on the wall closest to the tanks themselves. It would only take a single pull to free Dave.

"Hey, you!" a gnarly woman's voice snarled at me.

I turned around, caught in the act, and looked her in the eye.

"You aren't supposed to be in here!" the intimidating lady security guard yelled. "This is for employees _only_!"

Dammit to hell! I hadn't even been in Vegas for a day and I was already being cornered by the authorities? I had to think of a lie, and quickly, but the options of believable lies were slim in this situation. I ended up spitting out the first thing that popped in my head, although once it was out I realized that it was the most unbelievable thing I had come up with to date.

"I'm here to audition for the water ballet!" I felt the blood disappear from my face. There was no way she was going to believe that.

She eyed me, up and down for a second, and then sighed. "You're the third one that's gotten lost in this new aquarium. I'll escort you to the director. Although I'm not sure if you'll be able to get a part. They're going to start getting ready for the performance soon."

"Oh." Damn, like, am I smooth or what? I literally just bullshited again and it worked out really well… only now I had somehow gotten myself into a different situation about auditioning for a part in 'Mermaid Fantasy'. Pfftt, whatever. I'm sure I was 'too late' anyway.

Reluctantly, I ended up having to follow the security guard to meet the director. I'd find out a way to get Dave out once I got out of this situation. It was better than being kicked out of the aquarium areas, or worse, arrested.

I could hear people talking once we scaled a couple more stairs. A guy with a feminine voice was talking to someone, apparently on the phone, while a bunch of women made disappointed groans with every muttered sentence.

"What do you mean Cleo isn't going to be able to perform tonight!?" the director gasped. "What could have possibly sent her to the hospital?"

There was a long pause.

"Skydiving? The parachute didn't activate? Oh my word…"

I walked into the room then, seeing what was going on firsthand. A bunch of women were wearing mermaid suits, attempting to stand up properly despite that their legs were literally bound in tails. They all were blonde, for the exception of one red head, who was obviously the actress playing the main character.

"What are we going to do?" Ariel asked worriedly. I have no idea what her name was but that's what I ended up calling her.

"If Cleo isn't going to be here then we have no antagonist. The show is ruined!" The director spun around, placing a hand on his forehead. However, once he looked up and saw me, he gasped. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Uhhhh…" At least he didn't recognize me. That was good, I guess.

"She's here to audition for your underwater nerd-fest," the security guard said bitterly.

"You're here to be in the ballet?!" The director seemed to unleash a powerful wave of gleefulness. I don't think I had seen anyone this happy since, I don't know, myself on Christmas morning, or Dave when he successfully kidnapped penguins.

"Well, you see, I—" I tried to explain my way out of this, but the guy ran up to me and clasped my hands into his.

"You're perfect!" he exclaimed. "I'll admit, I would have preferred if you had black hair like Cleo, but a brunette will do perfectly for this role." He giddily chuckled before finishing what he was trying to say. "No audition needed, you're in!"

" _What?_ " My voice escaped me like hot steam coming out of a steam engine.

"Just to update you last minute, you will be playing the evil mershark Morella! She's come to take over the beautiful princess's kingdom and wreak havoc on the dolphin civilians. Only the prince can end her reign of terror with the help of his magical and awesome trident of justice and penguin friends!"

Just then, a buff guy walked into the room, although instead of looking like a merman, he basically just looked like a rip off of Aquaman or something heavily on those lines.

I squinted my eyes at the situation that had just farted into existence in front of me. "Why the hell does the prince have legs?" I couldn't help but ask.

"It's for aesthetics, sweetie," the director responded, although he quickly went back into excitement mode. He opened a large cabinet and took out the mershark outfit. It was basically the same thing as the mermaid costumes, only it had a shark inspired tail, and instead of a regular bikini sea shell top that the others had on, I had to wear something that looked like it was inspired by sea urchins.

"Screw this," I stated, and spun around to start heading back out the way I came, but instead I hit the intimidating lady security guard. She kept her arms crossed as she looked broodingly down at me. Shadows were literally settled on her eyes and above her nose, making her look like Severus freaking Snape or something.

"You were here to get into the show, _right_?" the security lady said sternly.

I literally was frozen solid. There was no way I was going to mess with this chick, like, hell no. It made it even worse when I looked at her arms, which were buff as hell, probably just as much so as the dude dressed as Aqua Lame-o. I'm pretty sure she could flick my nose with her single forefinger and knock me out.

Suddenly, the lady reached out towards me and grabbed both of my arms. She lifted me up, easily, turned me around, and then placed me back in front of the director.

"This is so exciting!" the director cheered. "We have our bad guy, everyone!"

The other women in the room started clapping, as well as the only male in the cast dressed as Aquaman.

_What the actual fuck just happened?_

. . . . . . .

I felt ridiculous. This was horrible. This, in all regards, completely smashed and destroyed and took over the whole red dress thing Dave made me wear the first time we went to kidnap penguins. The shark tail was pretty cool and all, and it was made to look like it was actually a part of my body, but the freaking spiky bra thing ruined it. Along with some bracers on my arms that matched the shark tail, I had to wear a mask too with goggles within it. The mask was basically a masquerade mask with dark underwater themes to make me look more 'scary'.

To be honest though, I didn't think I looked scary at all. As a matter of fact, me and the rest of these women looked like any other woman that was degraded in this damn city. Show girls. Underwater show girls. My life would be _ruined_ if anyone recognized me, though I'm sure with the mask and all I wouldn't get into that sort of nightmare scenario.

"Okay, ladies!" the director hummed happily as we took our positions in front of the entryway to the large tank stage. It was dark outside, but to make up for that fact there were a bunch of lights around the audience area along with spotlights. Also, despite that I couldn't actually see the tank yet, I could tell the tank stage itself was lit up with underwater lights to showcase the setting due to the ripples that filtered from the outside and onto the floors that I was currently standing in. I could hear people talking amongst themselves outside, their chatter meshing together like mixing waves on a seashore.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS, WELCOME TO MERMAID FANTASY!" an announcer yelled, causing me to clench my teeth together. The crowd outside started cheering as I was trying so hard not to go ballistic. I wanted to get the hell out of here, but not only was I wearing a freaking mershark tail, but that crazy security lady had been keeping an eye on me the entire time. Running away from that Amazon would be hard enough as it was, even without the outfit I was wearing.

Music started playing. It was happy and upbeat. This caused the handful of blonde women playing the side character mermaids to head out of the entryway. As they disappeared I could hear them all splashing as they went into the stage pool. I instantly heard claps as each girl headed in, one series of claps in particular coming from some asshole in the audience that started wooing at them.

"All right, Princess, you're next," the director said to the red head. Ariel nodded, and gracefully waddled (if that was even a thing) out the entry way. Her applause was much louder than the group of women that had gone before her. The music started to change with her entrance, apparently shifting the scene and attention overall to her.

"You don't show up until after the second act," the director told me. "This'll give you enough time to prepare, since you came in last minute. Try and be as intimidating as possible. I've trained the other animals to act scared of your role, so don't worry if they swim away from you."

Trained? I wanted to laugh. Those animals needed no training. They were smart. And once they knew I wasn't just some actor, shit was going to hit the fan. I just hope they wouldn't drown me to death or something. That's not how I wanted to go either, though thinking about it then, I don't think there was ever a way to go that was fun.

"You'll pay for this, you turd," I muttered to myself as my hands balled up into fists. I was talking about Dave, but the director seemed to hear me and take that as me trying to get into my role.

"That's the spirit!" the director laughed. "Although I'm sure 'turd' isn't an intimidating name to call your nemesis. Maybe, tramp, or scoundrel, or even weakling would be better. But of course, since you're underwater, none of the performers have any direct dialogue. The tale will be told mostly through music!"

"Ugh." I rolled my eyes. This was so ridiculous, like, I can't even properly describe any further how _dumb_ this all was.

After a few more minutes of standing there with my arms crossed and letting off the meanest pout I could create, the music shifted. The happy-go-ucky music from before had changed to a stereotypical sounding villain song. Even the lights outside changed to a red hue, indicating that it was my go.

"All right, Morella, you're up!" the director said with a smile, chuckling to himself upon calling Morella.

I swear to God. People. Are. So. UGH!

I took one last look at the ever so close and yet so far exit that the security guard was standing in front of, knowing that there was no escape, and started out toward the entryway. I was half expecting this to go somewhat smoothly, of course, with the fact that I would be instantly seen by hundreds of people while wearing a freaking mershark costume, but boy, was I wrong. Fear pretty much overcame me the instant I came out of the entryway

I was high up above the tank. Like, a good two stories high above the already elevated tank, so the people below looked like little action figures among the audience. If it wasn't for my mask I'm sure they would have saw the pure terror that overcame my eyes.

Among my entry, the crowd started clapping. The same guy as before, somewhere in the audience, wooed and whistled at me too.

"You have to jump!" the director behind the entrance whispered harshly at me once he saw that I was delaying the jump into the water. I normally wouldn't have really been worried about the jump, seeing as I've jumped from rocks before into a pool. But this? This was crazy. Also, the fact that I've fallen into a tank before that ended up having an actual freaking shark in it didn't help me in this situation.

As I stared down at the fall, the unexpected happened. The director _freaking pushed me_. The little asshole freaking pushed me from the platform, and I ended up tumbling into the tank from two stories high.

Luckily though, I didn't hear laughter as I fell, and instead was greeted to more 'woos' as I made my full entrance. After the splash and my submersion in the water, the cheers changed for the sight of the rest of the cast, along with some of the dolphins that had made their appearance in the show from the other tanks.

Even while under the water, I could still tell what was going on. All the spotlights gathered together and landed onto me, which triggered the dolphins, along with the other actors, to proceed acting scared of me. Ariel pointed her finger at me, then placed her other hand on her cheek.

The actors transitioned from the surface and dived back down when they needed to get air, although I on the other hand, constantly had to come back up to get a breath considering I had no idea what I was doing, and to be completely honest, couldn't hold my breath for that long whatsoever.

After a few more minutes of this redundant pointing, swimming away, breathing and shit, the music shifted once more from the villain music and to some sort of heroic tune. From the transition, all the actors swam to the surface, I following, to see the 'hero' of the story. Aquaman had finally made his entry.

Because we were all surfaced, I had to listen to the crowd cheer once more. Aquaman stood high up on the entry way, giving off one of those annoying smirks that in cartoons would normally have a twinkle in their teeth or something. After a few seconds of standing there and smiling, he pointed down at the water and at me. A voice came through the speakers (as in it was not actually him talking) and then he attempted to lip sync what was being said, but kinda shittily.

"Your reign of terror ends now, Morella! I will finally defeat you by summoning my penguin army! With the combined forces of the princess and her dolphins, with my golden trident of purity and justice, you will be destroyed!"

' _Penguin army?_ ' I mouthed silently to myself as my eyes narrowed in confusion. Who uses freaking penguins for an army? _Who the actual hell wrote this horrible story?_

Just then, the large doors on both sides of the tanks opened, connecting the stage tank to the other tanks throughout the building. However, when nothing came out of the underwater doorways, the crowd gasped.

"The penguins are gone?!" one woman in the audience yelled.

 _Dave_ _._ Even while being trapped in the tanks himself he somehow managed to kidnap the penguins. I don't know how he did it this time, to be honest.

Just then, a school of colorful ocean fish swam through the right doorway and into the stage tank. The large cluster of fish was shocking, causing the crowd to gasp once more. However, following the fish, Dave swam out of doorway, his presence large and intimidating as opposed to the rest of what animal cast was currently among us.

The crowd didn't think much of what was going on at first, but when Dave kept swimming, at me I'd like to emphasize, and grabbed hold of me, the crowd started _freaking out_. They then went from the normal kind of freaking out to complete batshit crazy. Everything started to get worse once Dave leapt onto the sides of the tank with me in his grasp and started scaling the sides of the glass to the top to get us out.

Screams and hollers filled the stage area, as people started sitting up from their seats and ran away from the stage tank. As the crowd of viewers tripped over one another to get out of the place, the actors themselves were starting to freak out too. The only difference was they had nowhere to run, so they just smashed up against the glass on the furthest side away from Dave and I. The dolphins, on the other hand, were simply confused, so they didn't do anything while Aquaman was letting off girlish squeals from his high pedestal above the tank.

Once Dave got to the top of the tank, he jumped. That time, I screamed. I mean, of course I freaking screamed! I didn't even know what was going on, so along with the crowd I felt nothing but terror. Shit was hitting the fan so hard that I couldn't even see straight. All I remember next was that Dave somehow landed on the ground softly, with me fully intact, then started running towards the doors on the sides. The same doors he had initially disappeared through to begin with.

After the doors locked tight behind us, and the crowd's screams had been muffled, Dave finally put me down and propped me up against the wall.

"I'll admit, that was a little more difficult than normal, but everything ended up working out perfectly," he said. "I managed to kidnap all the penguins before the doors initially closed on me and sent them with my henchmen back to the submarine. I was starting to get worried when that security guard took you, but look at you, improvising like that! I wouldn't take you for dressing up like… whatever this is, but it looks good!"

"I did not willingly wear this, you turd!" I finally hissed. "I had no choice! I had to do something to stay out of trouble and get you out! Do you realize what kind of _shit_ you put me through? I literally thought I would die!"

Despite that I was giving him the angriest look possible, that suddenly shifted away into a dumbfounded expression when he continued staring at me. His half smile, half smirk thing going on suddenly made me uncomfortable, and along with my heart that was still pounding from the chaos outside, my cheeks flushed red, seemingly evaporating what droplets of water that were still left on my cheeks.

He took my hands then into two of his tentacles, continuing with this weird smile of his. "I knew you could do it though," he said softly, and kinda deeply. It was weird. Like, I got super uncomfortable and lightheaded, especially hearing him talk like that. Among that, I felt a sharp stab of flutters fill my stomach momentarily.

"W—wha?" I stuttered. Confused, these two random and completely polar opposite feelings of butterflies and anger butted heads for a few seconds, but ultimately, anger got the better of the other. "L—Let go of me!" I hollered and snatched my hands away from his grip. "What do you think you're doing? Don't _touch_ me!"

A sudden scream from Aquaman and then a splash erupted from outside. He obviously fell in the tank, and even then the chaos outside wasn't letting up one bit. This seemed to be the only thing that pulled Dave back into order.

"All right, we better get going," he stated, and then shook his head slightly. "I don't want that security guard finding us. We'll just head to our room and pretend we had no idea what was happening out here."

He crept around the corner and reached into a slot in the wall. It was there that he pulled out his Dr. Brine disguise. However, he paused once he looked back at me.

"You are wearing something under that, right?" he asked seriously. "Nobody can know we were a part of this."

"Uhhh, yeah…" I responded. "It's only a bathing suit though."

"Who cares, I saw a bunch of other people walking around in bathing suits. There's a pool around here anyway, so it's not suspicious."

"So!" I exhaled. "I don't want to walk around in a freaking bikini in a freaking hotel! That's awkward!"

"Would you rather stay in here and wait for that security guard to come back?"

"No…"

"Then take that costume off and let's get going."

"Uhhhhhggggggg.” I sighed harshly. I ended up doing as told anyway. He was right, after all. I didn't want to be caught by that guard again.

Dave got dressed into his disguise, and I, well, got out of the mershark suit and detached the sea urchin things on my bikini top. Once ready, we headed out the other side of the door to the exit, and back into the main part of the hotel.

As we passed the lobby of both confused and scared guest, we kept our gazes looking forward and acted totally and completely normal. And by that, backs straight, faces stern, and hands to our sides like trained soldiers. Thankfully, due to the crazy show that had just happened a few moments earlier, people didn't pay much mind to us as we passed by and got in the elevator.

"We'll never discuss this again," I stated, then shivered uncontrollably. Hopefully tomorrow, when we met with Mr. Issa for business, would be a less eventful day.


	19. Game of Chances

"Where are we meeting this guy, his office or what?" I asked aloud, although I wasn't paying mind to exactly what Dave was doing, more rather how my damned mascara continued to clump on one cluster of lashes on my left eye. I was about to just wipe all of it off and start over, but thankfully, the eye brush managed to get it on properly, avoiding further frustration.

"We're going to stop by his building, yes…" Dave responded somewhere behind me in the hotel room. "We're just going to take a look at my order and make sure it's what I asked for. After that, we'll arrange shipping and we should be out of here."

"Thank God," I sighed as I finished the last few touches of my makeup. I looked at myself in the mirror one last time before I turned around, ready to go. "So, we should head out, huh?" I asked again into the room, but this time I didn't get a response. Instead, I could clearly hear the television. The news guy sounded kinda urgent.

I ended up walking from the bathroom area and into the main room with Dave, who was currently staring at the TV. He was up and ready to go in his Dr. Brine disguise, with the remote in hand and everything as if he was prepared to leave, but somehow was stuck in place, mouth partially open and eyes narrowed.

"What's going on?" I asked again, although when I finally looked at the TV myself it was apparent enough as to why he was acting this way.

"I don't know what happened!" the director from yesterday wailed in an interview, then took a handkerchief and blew his nose into it. After he managed to get a hold of himself, which took a good few seconds of almost crying all over again, he resumed. "It was all going so well! But then—then when the penguins didn't show up and that angry monstrous octopus came and took away my actress everything just died! Just like that! My brilliant ballet!" He suddenly started crying again, uncontrollably, as he turned around dramatically and went off camera.

The camera followed him, nonetheless, showing the director falling into the arms of the Aquaman actor from before, who proceeded to hug him and cry along with him.

"The biologists that work here, and who take care of the penguins, are baffled by this incident. Working with authorities, the Mirage Hotel has concluded that this was another penguin kidnapping that has since hit Houston and San Francisco thus far." The news guy began explaining further what was going on once the camera went back onto him. "The biologists also are telling us that the reason that the octopus acted the way it did was because of the trauma the kidnappers must have inflicted on the animals while taking away the penguins. However, the question remains, whatever happened to the actress? Some say she was actually eaten by the creature, or perhaps simply killed. We will continue to mourn the loss of the mystery woman that was a part of the underwater ballet."

By the time that story finished, I pretty much looked exactly like Dave did. We both continued starting at the TV, as the news guy transitioned into another related story.

"In related news, the San Francisco Zoo has finished cleaning up after their penguins were kidnapped. Luckily, they were able to save the rescue Tiger Shark, and transport it to another zoo for evaluation. However, one clue seems to have revealed itself."

On the upper right of the screen, an image of the bazooka, as in the one we freaking used, came onto the news channel.

"This weapon was found upon cleanup. Fingerprint analysis leads to no known criminals on record, and sadly, no other evidence is available that will help lead authorities into figuring out who it might belong to, and who might have kidnapped the penguins. Authorities are currently contacting witnesses that may have seen any suspicious activity."

"SHIT!" I cried out loud, breaking only then from my trance once my worries had climaxed upon the final mentioning of authorities finding the bazooka, and seeing my finger prints. Luckily I've never committed a criminal act though. Well, as in before I met Dave, so I was okay. My fingerprints on that bazooka were useless to them because of that, but what if anybody saw us?

"Everything will be fine, dearest, believe me," Dave tried to reassure as he came out of his own stiffened state of surprise. "I've been kidnapping penguins long before you arrived, so I know how messy this business with the human authorities can be. I guarantee you they will not suspect you."

"What if somebody saw us!?" I continued to fuss. "Like, that cop that pulled us over that night?"

"We were at the beach, researching clams," Dave restated calmly. "We even had evidence to prove that to the cop when my henchmen disguised themselves in the back of the van, remember? There is no need to fear. As a matter of fact, I can have my henchmen sneak into the San Francisco police department and take back the bazooka, so it'll be like it never happened! Although I admit that we may need to be a little more careful on future ventures."

"Careful!?" I erupted, "none of that would have happened if you just left me on guard duty! I told you I'm no good at that kidnapping shit!"

"But I thought you did good!" Dave tried to compliment. "And besides…" he drifted off for a moment as he turned the TV off, his voice transitioning again from his regular, loud tone to that soft deep thing he'd been doing lately. "I really enjoy being with you, you know."

I felt another flush try to come over my face, but instead I avoided that, and pushed at Dave instead. I hated it when he did that. It was… really _weird_. Also kinda nice sounding? Like, he had a nice voice? But it was still weird.

"Ugh! Let's just get going!" I huffed. "The sooner we meet this guy, the sooner we can leave."

. . . . . . .

I didn't particularly consider Las Vegas to be a city of industry, but somehow Mr. Issa's building seemed to completely change my perspective.

Obviously, Mr. Issa was a metal and rubber manufacturer, and things of its likeness. While walking through the building and passing glass windows that peered into the workings of the building, I could tell this guy meant business, and especially business that Dave would have been attracted to. I recognized the type of metals as being part of Dave's submarine, and even his recent aircraft. To be honest, I didn't even know you could simply find a place and buy metal like this.

But then again, you could buy a freaking battle tank online nowadays, so who am I kidding?

We then proceeded into an office, where in the front, a receptionist was talking on the phone with another customer. Briefly we remained standing there, until the lady hung up and turned her attention to us.

"Dr. Brine!" The receptionist knew who we were instantly. "Mr. Issa will see you now, please take the door behind me."

We silently did as directed, leaving the front desk and towards Mr. Issa's office. Upon walking in, it was rather shocking how big his office was. He had a giant window behind him with scenery of the city, along with fancy looking models of his inventions distributed throughout the room.

"Ah, Octavius, so glad you made it!" Mr. Issa's voice greeted happily, although we couldn't see him. It took me a moment to realize he was sitting in his overly large office chair, so it wasn't until he finally turned around to reveal himself did I realize he was actually in the room. "How's the new company going for you?" he then asked.

"It's going quite well, actually," Dave responded. "We're still in the process of getting things going, but it's coming along great."

"Not to mention you have those penguins to worry about!" Mr. Issa said. "I mean, those kidnappers were at it again last night! Did you hear about what happened in the Mirage Hotel? I heard some octopus attacked one of the show girls. Whoever is kidnapping those penguins obviously has problems if they're causing that kind of commotion."

Dave and I remained standing there casually, although briefly we exchanged glances. I'm so glad that people were overall oblivious because I always felt like my face turned red when I was caught lying. Mr. Issa, however, like everybody else, didn't seem to catch that.

"Yes… it's such a tragedy," Dave responded. "All our hard work will pay off though. We'll find those penguins soon enough."

"Good! Yes, good! That's definitely the kind of talk I expect to hear from _the_ Octavius Brine. Confident and headstrong!" Mr. Issa stood up from his chair and walked over towards us, and shook Dave's hand. Afterwards he turned to shake mine. "And… I don't think I've been properly introduced to the lovely lady here." His extended hand seemed to have a mind of its own as he grabbed mine without prior warning, and then placed a kiss on the back of it.

This was unexpected and surprised me, obviously, but it seemed to surprise Dave as well. He seemed to hunch a little, as his hands formed into irritable claws at his side, for once in a while in his Dr. Brine persona, his big crooked teeth were showing as he let his mouth form into an irritable cringe.

"This is my _fiancée_ , Kailey," Dave grumbled, although he managed to make himself a bit more relaxed after clearing his throat.

"Oh, so this is that girl I've been hearing all about!" Mr. Issa smiled. "It's truly an honor to meet you, Kailey. Can I call you by your first name? Octavius here and I go back almost ten years! I've been supplying him with metals to build his submarine, and even supplied him needed material for his research institute in Venice."

"You have a research institute in Venice?" I asked. Yet another thing Dave hadn't told me about. He was just full of secrets, wasn't he?

"Yes, I remember when you started helping me put together that building," Dave reflected. "Your work never ceased to amaze me, to be honest. I don't know who I'd turn to without your help."

"Ah, you're too kind, Octavius!" Mr. Issa laughed. "Hey, and I won't let you down anytime soon either. The parts you ordered? Look great! Which brings me to want to show them to you guys; you're going to love em'."

Mr. Issa started walking, indicating for us to follow. We ended up passing through the main office and headed down a good length of hallways before we came into a large garage area. Here, a bunch of workers were moving around completed items. Some of these items were simple metal planks and tiny parts for car engines, or on those lines. However, _our_ items stuck out among them. I honestly didn't understand why anybody would willingly _sell_ us crap like this, but you know, humanity has seemed to have lost its ability to realize they had a genius criminal mastermind among them that was actually a large purple octopus in disguise.

There, in their own section of the garage, were four huge tires. Like, HUGE tires. I don't even think they would have fit onto a freaking monster truck to be completely honest. Not only were they tall, in both height and circumference, but wide. I had never seen tires built like this before. They looked like something that was meant to be in, I don't know, a freaking sci-fi movie or something.

Not only that, but there were large metal plates colored in the same shade as the rest of Dave's stuff, as in like his submarine and all that. The trademark purple. Although that part wasn't nearly a cause for concern for me, but more rather, these weren't just regular metal slabs, but freaking plates of _armor_. HUGE plates of armor. Everything Dave ordered was gigantic, like, I was not expecting this whatsoever. I was really starting to wonder now what in the flying shits this 'project' was back in New York he was having built.

"I'm sure you'll find everything is in order," Mr. Issa hummed confidently. As he stood there, hands at his hips and eyes gleaming at his creation, he watched as Dave walked up to the stuff, who like Mr. Issa had predicted, seemed pretty happy with what was here for him.

"It's perfect," Dave smirked. A twinkle seemed to glisten through his eyes for a moment too, although this twinkle was more of the mischievous sort rather than the happy-go-lucky kind.

"Good!" I'll have a truck deliver them for you. They'll be sent to the Octo Corp headquarters in New York, if that's easier for you."

"Yes, that works perfectly," Dave said. "I guess we're all set then?"

"Yep, all done! Although I'd rather you two not leave just yet. I'd really like to take you out to lunch. It's the least I could do for your business." Mr. Issa turned to look at me, smirking thoughtfully as his train of thought seemed to have shifted. "Have you guys actually hung around town? As in tried out the slots or any of the sort?"

"I'm not a gambler, so…" I managed to respond first. Although that wasn't enough to stop Mr. Issa.

"Nonsense! You guys are hard workers. You deserve some time to yourselves! It'll be fun!"

"Well, all right," Dave said.

I signed softly. I had really just wanted to leave the moment we got business over with, but now we were going to have lunch and watch Mr. Issa try his luck at cards and stuff. I don't even know how it would go, but I'm sure it wasn't going to be as eventful as the water ballet.

. . . . . . .

I had been to Las Vegas when I was little, as in like twelve years old, so I didn't really pay attention to the gambling business. I was mostly interested in jumping into all the pools. But now that I was here, and seeing things for myself as a grown ass adult, I further began to question humanity and their interests.

Some people were dressed very nicely, but they portrayed themselves as these loud obnoxious assholes that surrounded themselves by a bunch of women, while others looked like they could care less and came in wearing dirty wifebeater shirts and shorty-shorts while smoking a cigar. I mean, it wasn't as bad as I'm making it out to be, I guess, but being in a casino-slash-restaurant was pretty much on the bottom of the list of things I wanted to do.

"How about we play a game of Craps?" Mr. Issa started happily as he popped his knuckles. "Would you consider yourself a lucky man, Octavius?"

"I would think so," Dave responded. He seemed more cool and confident than me, although this confidence of his didn't stop me from showing my concern. _Craps_? More like literally crap if you asked me. I didn't like this.

"Da—I mean, Octavius… look, do you really want to gamble money? Do you even know what gambling is?" He was an octopus so of course I had to ask. I didn't know how much human stuff he knew about.

"I've never done it before but I know what it is," Dave admitted. "I'll just do a few rounds, just to go along with him, and then we'll stop. I promise. He's a long time business partner, so I owe him that at least."

"Ughhh." I put both hands on the sides of my head, as if to hold it in place. I didn't like this at all.

"You folks want in on the game?" a dealer asked to our right. He was already running a group with one of the nicely dressed dudes surrounded by girls. They were all laughing to themselves and didn't seem to give much effort to look our way.

"Damn right we want to!" Mr. Issa said. “I'll go ahead and let my colleague here make the decision on what to bet on, though."

"You're kidding, right?" I asked, but my voice seemed to be drawled out by everyone talking.

"Yeah, sure…" Dave walked over with Mr. Issa, leaving me at the sides to watch potential horror strike. To be honest, I hated gambling. The idea of it freaked me out. Not to mention this Issa guy was a horrible example to Dave. I mean, I knew Dave was smart—he wouldn't do anything that would put himself or me in danger, let alone his money, but I was still worried, nonetheless.

The nicely dressed man with the girls seemed to scoff upon Dave and Mr. Issa's arrival into the game, causing the girls to stop chuckling and turn their attention to the obvious new game start at hand.

"I don't think I've seen you around here before…" the stranger stated. "You sure you wanna try your hand at this?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Mr. Issa responded. "If this is your way of getting rid of us, think again! We don't back down so easily!"

"What will you wager be, Sir?" the dealer asked Dave. If I wasn't already nervous I was now. I wasn't sure how Dave was going to be able to keep up with apparently pro gamblers.

"I'll start with two hundred," Dave answered confidently. He turned briefly to look at me, and gave me a wink.

Now _that_. That seemed… to help me a little bit. I knew Dave was confident but he seemed really sure of himself this time. Hopefully he knew what he was doing.

"I'm on this guy's side!" Mr. Issa said happily. "Pass bets, for sure. Seven is my lucky number!"

I watched as the group at the table set their bets and wagers onto the table, and then Dave took the dice, acting as the shooter or whatever. The guy that throws the dice. I didn't know anything about the game, let alone could pay attention enough to what small explanations were given, so I just ended up watching on the sides.

Once everyone was set was when Dave rolled the dice. I felt my heartstrings tug in my chest as he tossed them. I wasn't sure how he could possibly be confident in a game about chance.

"Seven!" the dealer claimed.

. . . . . . .

"Seven again! Yeah!" Mr. Issa might as well be Dave's cheerleader because he'd been on the verge of jumping up and down the entire time. The guy with the girls had been losing, causing him to abruptly sit up and walk off. This caused the girls to start awwing in disappointment since they weren't used to their 'Gary' losing. They had been playing for quite some time, though it seemed they were finally about to stop anyway.

"All right; let's cash up and we'll go ahead and have lunch," Mr. Issa said. "But—Kailey, you didn't play! There's got to be something you want to do?"

"Nah… I'll be okay." I shook my hands in front of myself awkwardly, attempting to avoid any of this gambling business. It wasn't until I heard the dealer count up Dave and Mr. Issa's winnings did I actually almost crap myself.

"Ten thousand, Sir."

Ten thousand flippin' dollars? _Just like that?_ HOW?

"You sure are good at this," Mr. Issa explained to Dave upon hearing the count. "Tell you what, I'll let you take all the money. Consider it a donation to your company, and your efforts to find those missing penguins. I think you deserve it."

Holy shit. What a nice guy? He was annoying in his own way, but he was seriously super nice? Like, just like that he was willing to give up his winnings to Dave? Damn, like, where are these kinds of people in the everyday world? I admit I ran across maybe one or two in my lifetime but never nearly on this type of scale. If only all rich big company owners were this kind.

We ended up leaving the casino section of the building and towards the restaurant. It was relatively high class, considering its location, but I suppose all the diamonds in the rough were surrounded by shits anyway, so who am I kidding. This was Vegas, after all.

Upon taking our seat was when Mr. Issa started talking again. "Tell me, what is it that you've been working on?" He seemed cheerful, as always. "You know, I shouldn't really ask, but I'm curious. It's not every day somebody puts an order in for giant tires like that."

I didn't even know what the hell Dave was building, so this caught my curiosity.

"Oh… well, it's a project of mine to help find the penguins. I know it might seem a little—well—going over the edge with how big in scale it is, but it's necessary to the process."

"That's wonderful!" Mr. Issa exclaimed. "And so very inspiring. Using your resources like that to help those poor, cute little penguins. You know, I've actually been working on something myself that I think will benefit humankind." He hunkered low a little bit, bringing his voice down significantly compared to how loud he normally talked. "It could be a breakthrough for humanity. Although the process has been a little illegal, but you know, progress takes risk."

Both Dave and I leaned forward over the table to listen to Mr. Issa. It was probably awkward seeing us all hunkered together like this and whispering to each other, but at the time I didn't care, and apparently neither did they.

"What is it?" I was the first to ask.

"I call them Quantum Crystal Units, or QCUs." Mr. Issa whispered proudly. "At their basic level, they're literally batteries, the size of your house cat or dog I'd say, that hold immensely large amounts of energy. They could replace gasoline, solar energy—heck, anything! Put em' in your car, put em' in your house, heck put em' in your airplanes! Best thing is, they'll last you years!"

"How is this possible?" Dave then asked.

"Oh, as much as I trust you, Octavius, I can't allow the workings of how these things are made getting out. I'm running a business, you know."

"Well… is it possible to purchase them?"

"Not anytime soon, I'm afraid. I only have one, you see, and it still hasn't been approved by the government for mass production. Let alone known by the government. Actually, nobody knows about it but you. I'm kinda trying to keep a low profile."

"I didn't see them in your building though," I stated. "It would be interesting to see this thing."

"I'm afraid it's not at my building. It's currently stored in the Hydroelectric Generator Facility. I have a lab there, you see, not to mention I have more resources there for a project like this. But ya know, maybe someday I'll finally get to show you guys. Hopefully all goes well, and you know, I don't get arrested for doing something this illegal!"

"Hopefully," Dave chuckled.

"Hey, would you look at that!" Mr. Issa's mind went elsewhere already once his eyes caught a glimpse of some flashing lights on the outer corners of the restaurant, back slightly into the casino portion of the building. "See that car right there, the one that's for the winning? You should try your luck out on that, Octavius. It's just twenty-five cents for a chance to win."

"I highly doubt he'd want to do that," I chuckled casually, although I hated it when this guy constantly brought up gambling, even in the littlest of forms.

"Sure, why not," Dave said, sitting up, and taking Mr. Issa's obvious dare like some kind of kid. I facepalmed myself as he started walking over, leaving me with Mr. Issa.

"I've been working with Octavius for a long time, but boy, he needs to get out more," he said. "I mean, is it just me or is he really into this whole being a big business owner?"

"Aren't _you_ a big business owner?" I responded. "You have to act somewhat serious, you know."

"Well, yeah, but not like _him_ _._ Today he's looked better, but with all my time spent working with him he's always came off as a bitter old… I don't know—grump! It's actually interesting to say that he hasn't been this laid back whatsoever since I've known him."

"What do you mean?"

"As in he seems… happy, to say the least. Whatever you're doing, you're doing good."

"Oh." To be honest I really wasn't doing anything. I still didn't really know what Mr. Issa was talking about, so I didn't know what to think of this. I just sat there, briefly looking at my hands awkwardly, until I heard the sound of rings and buzzes go off.

Both Mr. Issa and I looked up at that moment, and turned our heads towards the casino area. Dave had triggered the flashing lights among the prize car to go off, as some bright gold letters above it shined 'WINNER!'

"No way, he actually did it! I knew he was a lucky fella. Nobody plays Craps for the first time and wins, let alone this."

"Yeah… I guess he did," I sighed, but not from irritation. Dave always seemed to have everything under control, even his own luck. It was kinda inspiring, to be honest.

"You should go over and congratulate him!" Mr. Issa seemed like he was getting just as excited as all the other people in the restaurant who had turned around to see who the winner of the newest white model of the Mercedes–McLaren SLR was. Because of the flashing lights I was reluctant to walk over, as to not cause attention to myself, although after a few seconds I managed to stand up and head over anyway.

"Wow," I said as I walked up beside Dave, crossing my arms around myself while I looked up at the car. "I don't know how you do it."

"Neither do I," Dave admitted. "But with this lucky streak I guess it's safe to assume that our next mission will go on a little easier, don't you think?"

"Mission?" I broke my gaze from the flashy new car and to Dave, whose expression had suddenly changed into a mischievous smirk. "Please don't tell me we're kidnapping more penguins already."

"No, not yet…" Dave began. "We're heading to the Hoover Dam."

"And _why?_ "

"To find that hydroelectric facility… and get our hands on the QCU."


	20. The Dam Tour

"You're an idiot!" I couldn't help but yell. I didn't even care that people were looking at us either. "You would do this to him? Your long time business partner?"

"Shhh! Keep it down, dearest, there is no need to yell," Dave reasoned, but I wasn't buying it.

"I don't even know what to say!" I was so appalled I didn't think that there was anything at that moment that could stop me. "He literally just gave you ten thousand freaking dollars!"

"I don't think you understand the proportions of what it takes to create what I'm building," Dave answered gently, at least far more gently than how I was speaking to him. "I've been looking for a way to power my machines that didn't cost me thousands of dollars with every pump of gas. It's not cheap owning a submarine, you know, let alone running a company."

"Yeah, that's reasonable and all, but don't you think you should reconsider stealing—"

Dave covered my mouth that time, his eyes shifting around cautiously at the passing tourists that were heading into the Hoover Dam area. Some people were looking at us, but they seemed to not care in comparison to how excited they were about visiting the place.

"Get your hand off my face!" I fussed one last time as I tore his hand away from me. I took a deep breath to settle myself down afterwards. If I didn't try to take a step back and calm myself down I'm sure I would have just gone berserk and would have ruined this entire trip. "Okay… big _woop_! We're here to take your business partners invention. How are we supposed to get in? The only way you can look around the lower portions of the dam is with an official tour guide."

"That's why I scheduled for us to go on a tour," Dave reasoned. "We'll get in with the tour group, and then once we get inside the facility we'll sneak off and find the lab."

"Ugh…" I gave a gigantic sigh. I thought it was criminal enough stealing penguins, but this was on another level. This was an invention of great power we were stealing. Literally. "Fine. Whatever. Let's just get this over with. We better not get arrested."

"We won't," Dave said sternly. "Have I ever failed before?"

"No."

"See? Now let's get going and find the tour group. The sooner we start the sooner we can leave. I want to head directly back to the submarine and go straight back to New York after this."

"Thank God," I sighed again. Finally some relief would come after all of this.

Dave and I started walking towards the main area where the tour groups would meet. It wouldn't take long before we met with our scheduled group and tour guide, who would proceed to take us towards the main entrance to head down towards the lower depths of the dam itself. A couple of security guards were there, but of course, since we were in a group, they didn't stop us.

Once we had gone down the large staircase and were at the start of the official tour was when the tour guide turned around and prepped himself for another run.

"Okay folks…" the elderly tour guide started. "Welcome to the Dam Tour. I am your dam guide. Please keep all of your dam questions on hold until I give a say so; this will help with the time schedule. Remember, all your dam gifts can be found in the Dam Store on your way out of here."

 _I swear to God I wanted to start laughing but I managed to bite my lip and hold it all back_. The hilarious part was this guy didn't even realize what he was saying. That, or I just have a filthy mind, but whatever.

"Now if you would all so kindly follow me this way…" the tour guide said, gesturing for us to head down the large hallway with him. We eventually came to an area in which the metal walls were replaced by pure rock, some of these rocks actually leaking tiny streams from the cracks in certain spots of the stone itself. Some children in the group awed at this with both curiosity and concern, although the tour guide seemed to cover that very quickly.

"The little cracks are nothing to be concerned about," the elderly guide said. "Most of the natural stone here underground was left untouched and evaluated as safe for use to travel through. Although please do not touch the rocks, as sometimes these water streams can be made worse… now then, some dam facts for you folks. Did you know that each of our seventeen generators can supply electricity to 100,000 households? With great power comes great size, however. Each generator weighs 4 million pounds…"

As the tour guide talked Dave grabbed my hand, which caused me, along with himself, to slow down. This allowed the rest of the group to start walking ahead of us. Due to the lecture that the tour guide was initiating, this left everyone's focus on him, leaving nobody to notice when we quickly dived into another hallway.

"Okay, here we go…" Dave muttered aloud, taking a look around one last time as to make sure there was no more security. "Let's look for that lab."

"This place is huge, how are we even supposed to find the lab?" I couldn't help but ask this. The Hoover Dam was a big place, and not just the actual wall part. There were so many corridors, hallways, and rooms that finding a single lab would probably be difficult, and dangerous. I had no idea if there were more security guards around here, let alone workers that might notice us.

"It can't be that hard to find," Dave responded. His statement completely clashed with my objections about how this would probably be a difficult task. I didn't understand how he could possibly think things were easy. Let alone everything. Then again, I guess spending years working on some scientific formula that would turn penguins into monsters made everything else easy for him.

"We should get moving. Stay close to me," Dave muttered, and started walking down the hallway we had jumped into.

I did as told and kept close behind him, hunkering down only slightly in a way that I thought would make me less noticeable, but I'm sure it just made me look ridiculous. I was pretty nervous though, so of course I was going to try and be cautious about where I was going. Even with Dave, my eyes were constantly moving. I was taking in every single space in the walls or crack in the stone. I made sure to notice every sound, drip, and echo that made its way into my range of hearing. I couldn't focus on just one thing.

Just then a door came into view, which caused me to finally stand up straight. I wasn't sure how we were going to go about this, you know, risk getting caught and all, but I trusted Dave. As weird, sporadic, and sometimes dumb as he was in the face of these kind of situations, he's always come through before. I tried settling my mind on the comforting fact that he could most likely get us through this as well.

Without a word, we ventured towards the door. Upon cracking it open, we peeked inside, taking notice of the Hoover Dam's main underground control room. Luckily, immediately to the side of the control desk was a map of the facility. The bad thing about this, however, was that there was a worker at the controls, along with a police officer making conversation.

"What are we going to do?" I whispered at Dave, who was still evaluating the situation. He was quiet as his eyes looked around the room, settling on the two people after a few moments. I had thought it would be better to go ahead and turn around, go somewhere else, and try to find that lab on our own and without the help of the map, but like always, Dave had other plans.

"I'm going to have to knock them out," Dave whispered, "and we'll take their clothes. That way we won't have to worry about sneaking around."

"Are you kidding me!?" I was completely baffled and outright anxious about doing something yet again illegal as all hell. "How do you expect me to knock out a full grown ass man?"

"I didn't say _you_ had to do it," Dave said. "Now wait here; I'll take them out."

" _Shit, shit shit shit…_ " I hissed over and over once Dave slipped through the door. I closed the door after he went though, pushed my back up against the wall to help sustain my composure, then listened.

"Yo, Clyde, aren't you supposed to be working the parking lots today?" I heard one say, who must have been the worker at the controls.

"Technically. I wanted to hang down here for a break though. It's damned hot up there."

"You could get canned for doing that."

"Probably. But I'm not worrying too much about that—ARGHHHH!"

And just like that, I heard them hit the floor. I gasped in response and prepared myself mentally as I backed away and opened the door, though not quite expecting that Dave had already stripped down both men and had put on the police uniform.

"Kailey, put this on," Dave said, then tossed me the worker's clothes, a helmet, and a pair of big sunglasses. I managed to catch everything, although I was still frozen in place, completely baffled about what was going on and what I had to do.

"Why do you get to have the police uniform?" I complained. I watched him put on a pair of sunglasses too, then stick on his fake mustache from the circus incident. _I swear, he pulls shit out like rabbits out of a hat._

"The worker's clothes looked like they would fit you better, since he's a small guy."

"Ugh!" I kicked the door shut behind me and walked into the room. I slipped the jumpsuit on over my clothes, tucking the suit's legs into the boots provided for me. I made sure to put whatever else I was carrying into the big pockets on the suit itself as to not have to leave them behind.

"It's like looting dead guys on Skyrim," I said aloud, attempting to make light of the situation, but after a few seconds of thinking about it I felt bad. "How are we going to hide them, anyway?"

"I'm going to stuff them in the locker right there."

"WHAT?" _Like I expected this to go any differently_.

I watched him pick up the guys and stuff them into the locker together. I admit, it was kinda funny, but at the same time I continuously reminded myself that what we were doing was horrible, so that ruined those moments of amusement.

"Okay, so we are here, according to the map…" Dave spoke aloud as he turned his attention to the layout of the facility on the wall. I watched to the sides, looking around again cautiously as Dave read the map. It only took a few minutes, thank God, for him to finally figure out a route to the lab.

"It's a few yards north from here. Should be easy to find," Dave calculated. "And with our new disguises we won't have to worry about causing suspicion."

"Hahaha, _right…_ " I chuckled nervously and sarcastically. "Nobody will suspect a thing, per the norm."

"That's positive thinking!" Dave cheerfully replied. "Now, let's get moving." He gestured to me to follow him, and with that we started out the other doorway on the opposite side of the room.

I didn't bother paying attention to where we were going, since I was still too preoccupied with keeping an eye out for other people. I was worried sick that somebody was going to see past these disguises and notice us for who we really were, but then I had to remind myself that Dave walked into a freaking circus wearing only a fake ass mustache and nobody recognized him. That still confused me, to be completely honest; like, were people really that thick-headed?

Before I knew it, we reached another doorway. Only this time, above it read 'Extension of Issa Laboratories'. We had made it at last.

"So, what exactly does this QCU even look like?" I asked as Dave worked the door open. "It could look like anything from what he described. How are we supposed to even find it?"

Dave opened the door. As it creaked open, the laboratory lit up, showcasing the many mechanisms attached to the walls and large power generator directly in the back. However, what we came for was the most obvious.

It was in a quartz crystal shape, sharpened on the ends and bearing a very defined center. It was an extremely pale yellow, making it look almost transparent, and like Mr. Issa had described to us earlier that day, was about the size of a large cat or small dog. It was connected to the power generator behind it, hovering in a mechanism that seemed to have at one time been pumping it with energy.

Dave ran into the room like an excited child about to meet Santa or something. He smiled, clenching his teeth through his chuckles as he reached out as if to touch the object.

"This is it… this will work perfectly," Dave said.

"Okay, so we found it," I responded to the situation with preparation to bring up another problem. I always looked before I leaped, so I needed to be sure Dave had a plan to get out of here. "How are we going to smuggle it out? Not to mention how are we going to find the damn Dam Tour to get back to the surface?"

"The guards that saw us come in might think something is off if we return in our disguises, not to mention it would be obvious now that we are carrying something large. We'll find another way out."

"Oh, so _now_ you're worried about somebody recognizing us?"

Without prior warning, Dave grabbed a large tan backpack that was lying to the side, then proceeded to take the battery from its place and shove it in it. I'll admit, I was scared even when he decided to do that. I mean, I had no idea how this QCU would react to somebody touching it, let alone taking it out of its place. Once nothing happened, mild relief came over me, once again turning my worries to the new task at hand.

"Here, put this on," Dave walked over to me to hand me the backpack. "Follow me; I think I know of another way out of here."

"Oh, yay," I said sarcastically, taking the bag and slipping it on.

I watched him as he looked around the room one last time, then start out the door. I, of course, followed. Instead of going back the way we came, we started down another hallway, the natural rocky walls turning into hard concrete the further down we went. It seemed we were quickly walking for quite some time until we reached another door, although this door was leading to the outside.

The bright light from the Nevada sun seemed to blind me momentarily as I stepped out from the underground facility and outwards. Blinking in attempts to see, my brain was slowly fed the information it needed to know where we were… power lines and towers… large walls on either side. Huge walls?

"This isn't the way out, you dimwit!" Once I realized where we were my anxiety returned. We were at the very bottom portions of the dam itself. Very high up was our way out, and without a single staircase or elevator in sight, I was about to quit and turn around from Dave to try my hand at getting out of here myself.

"No, wait…" Dave said as he looked around. "We can't risk coming out the other way."

"Then what do you suggest, _genius?_ "

He paused, inquisitively looking at the towers around us. "It might be a long shot," Dave muttered aloud, "but I think we can climb these towers and reach the top of the dam."

"Screw this!" I threw my hands in the air. "I'm not doing that shit."

"It'll be fine, I promise!" Dave said in a pleading manner. "I won't let anything happen to you, I swear."

"I'm going to regret this," I scoffed aloud as I blew a strand of hair out of my face. "Fine, let's go." I don't know why I even agree to this stuff. I didn't have to do _anything_ if I didn't want to, really. It wasn't like Dave was going to hurt me if I didn't do as he said—he wasn't like that. But regardless of my outward protests I always ended up doing it anyway.

I reluctantly followed Dave up the side ladders among the towers. I tried paying attention to solely my footing on each step instead of remembering that the further I went upwards, the scarier the sight looking down would probably be. Dave seemed to know what he was doing anyway, but once we reached the top and stood among the top of the tower itself we had another dilemma on our hands.

"Hmmm… I guess the towers looked taller than they actually are." Dave put his hands on the sides of his 'hips' as he looked around again, attempting to reevaluate the situation.

"Okay, so we can't get out this way…" I said as calmly as I could. The wind up this high and among the dam was stirring up quite a bit, causing my hair to fly annoyingly in my face. "Let's just go back down the ladder and take our chances coming out the way we came. I mean… I don't know how we'll get past everyone with this bag with a giant yellow thing crammed in it, but it's our best shot."

"No…" Dave answered back through his train of thought. He pointed at the power lines that were attached to the towers around us and seemingly leading towards the dam itself. "We'll get across with these," he then stated.

"What the hell kind of person do you think I am, Dave!?" I cried back, both frustration and anxiety returning again despite my efforts to hold them back. "I'm not like you! I can't do that!"

"Just hang onto me then." He seemed pretty straight forward with his answer, but this just made me swallow hard with anticipation. "Hang onto my back, and we'll get across."

I took both my hands and buried my face in my palms, letting out a muffled scream as the wind picked up once more and flung my hair around. It wasn't until a good few moments later did I finally have the courage to lift my face up and look at the weird ass circumstances that I was being forced to endure.

Once again and for like the billionth time today, I reluctantly grabbed hold of Dave, placing myself on his back and prepared for the worst. He seemed to be balancing himself okay as it was, even with my added weight on him, but that didn't really change too much in my own thought processes.

"Hang on, okay?" Dave said.

"Like I have a choice," I responded sarcastically.

Just then, he put both of his hands onto the wires and dropped himself from our safe place among the tower to dangle off the power lines.

To say the least, I freaked out. Through panic I tried not to look down, and steered my focus to holding onto Dave even harder. I freaking hated this shit. Why do I do this to myself? Why do I let Dave drag me around like this and end up doing everything he wants?

Every time the wind picked up again, it shook us slightly from our hanging state, causing my feet to feel even more danglely than they already were. The feeling of there being nothing below me was terrifying. Like, I didn't have a straight view downward so I couldn't actually see the fall, but I knew it was there.

We started making pace across the wire, when the most horrific thing on this venture so far happened: _the wire snapped_.

Sparks flew everywhere once the wire broke off the tower, causing us to suddenly swing towards the wall itself. I let loose a loud ass scream as we flew through the air, even within those brief seconds seeing my life flash before my eyes.

It wasn't until we hit the wall that Dave let go of the wires, escaping the sparks in exchange for a new problem.

I knew Dave could crawl up the sides of walls rather easily. He had shown me that when we had kidnapped the penguins in the San Francisco Zoo, but there were no people at that time to see us. Who was going to look at a guy crawling up the side of the Hoover Dam with someone on his back normally? Nobody, that's what! We'd be a spectacle! If people didn't recognize us, they were going to think we were freaks (or at least Dave)! AGGHHRRH!

"If we survive this I'm going to be the one to kill you!" I yelled out of frustration.

Dave managed to ignore my threat and start scaling the freaking damn dam. Even as the wind picked up he kept his footing, though on the other hand I was still freaking out. My harsh tugs on his neck didn't seem to bother him that much, so I didn't have to worry about accidentally strangling him.

"AHHHH! THERE'S SOMEONE DOWN THERE!" I heard a woman cry from the top.

_Shit, here we go. My nightmare scenario begins._

I looked up towards the side rails to see people looking down at us. A bunch of screams and panicked conversations could be heard, despite the wind in my ears, so I knew we'd have a crowd to face by the time we got to the top. It would be a matter of time before we'd be arrested for this, and our cover would be blown. Mr. Issa would find out we went to steal his freaking battery thing and then Dave would go to prison and be exposed as a FREAKING LARGE PURPLE OCTOPUS.

And me? Lord knows what would happen to me, for God's sake. What would people think of me, a person who was working with a freaking octopus? I could pull the kidnapping thing on potential police officers that would question me, but then they'd ask why I didn't bother to go looking for help the countless times I could have escaped.

As we made our way to the top I counted the seconds. Each second seemed to become longer the more I thought about what could happen. My mom's dreams of me marrying a doctor? _Gone._ My cousin looking at me as a sane and normal person? _Out the window_. My dad realizing that the only person I ever managed to get engaged to, and allowed to take me out, is actually an octopus? _Shit into the fan._

Then, through my constant mental streaming of horrible scenarios, we reached the top.

Dave crawled over the edge, took me from his back, and held me up in his arms. I was half expecting to be arrested on the spot, but without warning the crowd erupted into cheers. The sheer contrast of the expected mob I had in mind as opposed to these gleeful claps and smiles was a surprise.

"He saved her! The police officer saved one of the workers!" one person cried.

"He's a hero!" another erupted.

Applause followed, leaving me with my mouth wanting to hang open as I looked out at all of the people. A few cameras came out as flashes consumed my vision momentarily, but otherwise it was okay. No police officers, or going to prison… again we were being praised? And nobody even recognized us?

As I sat in Dave's arms I slowly looked back to him. My gaze was met with a proud smirk: that overly confident and pain-in-the-ass kind you'd typically see on assholes. Only it was on Dave, making him look like a dork.

"Told ya we'd be okay," he said, keeping his smile.

God, he never ceased to amaze me…


	21. Tetradnaught

_It was driving me crazy._

Whatever this thing was that Dave was building had been a mystery to me for the longest time. Every passing day since I had found out about it, this desire to know what it was had gotten progressively worse, but it was only by the time we had gotten back to New York did I let this excitement get the better of me. I watched the henchmen head out of the submarine doors once we made landfall, obviously going ahead and taking the QCU back to Octo Corp headquarters.

I was internally screaming from anticipation. I mean, giant tires? Huge sets of metal armor? A battery of intense charge? I mean—what was he actually building? Another gigantic airplane? Another tank? Then again, I don't think airplanes would have required tires quite that big, let alone a support tank… but you know. Whatever.

I reluctantly forced myself away from the exit of the sub and turned my attention back to Dave, who was currently looking over his schedule with some of his other henchmen. From the looks of it, we had a wave of pledge drives to attend, one of the first being here in New York.

"John, Malco, which location is my next pledge drive?" Dave asked upon looking at the list in confusion. "It looks like we have two in a row for New York." I don't know what it was about that pun he unknowingly made in particular, but... did he actually sound like John? Like, this wasn't just me, right? Is it possible that people can have voice twins? I heard about people looking the same as some stranger, but whatever. I might be overthinking things. I'm going insane, probably.

A couple of gobbles escaped the group of henchmen that had obviously been working out the schedule. One slapped another, and a small fight emerged like a domino effect, though it quickly dissipated once the argument had been settled.

One of the henchmen took the initiative and managed to get into the computer and fix the schedule. He then let loose a gigantic sigh as he turned back around to glare at the others.

"That's better," Dave spoke, smiling at the list in front of him. "Hopefully these next few pledge drives will bring in the money we need to make up for what I just spent…" Dave paused, and then turned around to look at me. His expression of deep thought changed slightly as a crooked smile overcame it. "Oh... well, never mind."

"Why do you torture me like this?" I said as I wrapped my arms tightly around myself to showcase my disappointment. "Why can't you just tell me what it is?"

"In due time, dearest!" Dave chirped. "It's a very special machine, you know. I had wanted to surprise you with the support tanks before my henchmen so rudely ruined said surprise, so I'm going to enjoy this next one."

I didn't even know why this was such a big deal, to be honest. I mean, of course it was a big deal in the sense of what it could be—any of Dave's freaking machines were marvels in their own respects. But how was this one was any different? I guess I had to wait and see.

Which was annoying as _hell_.

I tried deterring my attention elsewhere, and looked around the room. To the left corners of the room, located on a special little shelf, was a singular little snow globe. It was mildly cracked too, which seemed to do the trick in swapping my thoughts about whatever Dave was keeping secret from me to that.

"Hey... What's that for?" I asked upon walking over to the stand, although I didn't need to get an answer by the time I picked the little snow globe up.

It was the same snow globe I found at the airport before any of this happened. The one I found Dave in.

"No way; you still have this?" I asked gleefully. "I didn't think you had it anymore, since… well, you know, you were inside it at one point. I figured you had to break it to get out."

Dave was quiet as he stared at me from across the room, still at his place beside the computer. "Well... of course I kept it," Dave said. "I kept a snow globe collection for a long time, and that one happens to be the only one I was able to save."

"Save?" I looked up from the dancing pieces of white floating around in the small container, and to him. "You mean you had more of these?"

"Yeah…" Dave sighed. "They were lost a few months back when those penguins first ruined my plans."

"And put you in this one in the first place?" I finished for him, smiling ever so lightly. I didn't want to full-fledged laugh at him, since I knew how sensitive he was about losing to the penguins, so I kept it to myself. "Well, at least you saved one of them. That's all that matters, right? I mean, we could always find more if you really wanted too."

"It's cracked though," Dave responded, kind of bitterly.

"So?" I scoffed. "What's wrong with it being cracked?" I lifted it up a little bit towards the ceiling, where I stationed the object right under the overhead lights to where it filtered through the snow globe directly. It caused the light to filter through the cracked glass differently, making it look like it carried an array of colors that passed through the white specks. "It makes it look prettier, don't you think?" I said. "Also, if you think about it, if it wasn't for you getting stuck in this thing in the first place we never would have met."

It was quiet in the room, leaving an awkward sort of heaviness in the air. After a few moments of looking up at the snow globe, I finally put my arms down. When I did, I noticed that Dave was still staring at me. It wasn't a stare that would have indicated he was angry, or frustrated, but more of a relieved sort of stare.

"You're right…" he wistfully exhaled. "Sometimes I wonder how our circumstances worked out for the better. If you didn't find me I'd probably would still be stuck in that bathroom, or worse, thrown away and probably lost somewhere."

"And I would still be looking for a job," I joked. "Probably a very uneventful job as opposed to what you've put me through."

"Probably," he smiled softly, seemingly allowing himself to relax within the conversation.

The cam-caller on the computer starting ringing, breaking the tranquility of the room in an instant. One of the henchmen got to the phone before Dave managed to look away from me, allowing a series of gobbles to come from the other line.

After a while of back-and-forth gobbles between the henchmen, Dave finally started to explain what was going on.

"Looks like the henchmen are ready for us!" Dave said happily, sitting up from where he was and proceeded to unleash another one of his large grins. "It's ready."

. . . . . . .

Octo Corp headquarters had been cleaned and prepared for us by the time we got there. It had been pretty much completed beforehand, but I remembered there were still sections of the building that Dave had mentioned were still being worked on, so it was interesting to finally be able to walk down halls that prior to this weren't even there.

As we made our way through the large building I took notice of Dave attempting to suppress his own excitement. He kept chuckling to himself like a little fangirl, placing a tentacle up to his mouth in attempts to muffle these sudden eruptions of giggles.

"Can you at least tell me what this thing is called?" I asked as we continued walking.

"Well... I suppose I could tell you the project number," Dave mumbled. "In our records we call it Project 69."

My eyes narrowed as I registered what he just told me. He seemed to not think anything of it though, which was the funniest part. I guess that was a good thing. I'm horrible.

"Why is it called Project 69?" I couldn't help but laugh a little bit. "What the hell?"

"What's wrong?" Dave turned his head finally to look at me. "That's the number indicating the final blueprint of the project. I went through a lot of ideas before Penny's group and I settled on this one."

"Pffttt… Project 69." I laughed again. "I am so sorry, but what?"

We turned a corner before we reached a large doorway. It was here that Dave slowed down, his excitement returning once more.

"Okay, I want you to close your eyes," Dave said with a grin. "Go on; close them."

I smiled briefly before I did as I was told, and shut my eyes. It was only when he took my hand and I heard the door open that we started walking forward. After a few steps into the new room I heard a couple of gobbles from the henchmen that were in there, followed by a strained " _shhh!_ " coming from Dave, who was trying to get everything in order.

I'll admit, I had an urge to peek, but this seemed too important to ruin my own surprise.

"Okay, you can look now," Dave said.

Once my eyes opened I'm sure I almost started fangirling, but at the same time my mind buzzed around with even more questions as to why this thing even existed.

 _It was a damned 30-foot tall robot_. Mind you, it looked like it came straight out of a video game or something. It was so damned beautiful that I literally wished I could throw my arms in the air like I just didn't care, but I was frozen stiff from taking it all in.

The robot was octopus inspired, though instead of eight legs it had only four. These four legs reminded me of some of the pictures I had seen of the submarine's blueprints throughout my time with Dave, where it could walk on land. Although these legs, unlike the ones on the submarine, had more armored plating, and instead of claw–like contraptions at the bottoms of these legs, the large tires Dave had ordered were supporting the robot instead.

On the robot's face there was a green tinted rectangular windshield, which were accented at the upper ends. Where the 'nose' was there was obviously a weapon of some sort built within it, and below that was Dave's 'Dr. Brine' insignia, along with another weapon just below that. Of course, it was painted purple like the rest of Dave's things.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Dave chuckled gleefully and excitedly as he looked back and forth between the robot and to me. "We named it Tetradnaught. It will be used for defense purposes."

"Defense purposes?" I raised a brow, my excitement exchanging for caution. "What are we supposed to be defending ourselves from?"

"North Wind, of course," Dave said. "You don't think that we saw the last of them, did you? They escaped their base when we last attacked them. They are very much still out there, so if they do decide to come back we'll be ready with this. I have a scout team keeping an eye out for them, so it's possible we'll take the battle to them if they're found."

"Are you kidding!?" Of course I let my caution bubble into outright worry. Dave had literally built a robot of destruction for the sole purpose of taking on North Wind if needed. I honestly don't know what else I was expecting. I guess I kind of forgot about North Wind still being a possible threat. I mean, after seeing their base erupt into flames I pretty much anticipated we'd never hear from them again.

Penny popped up from around the corner at that moment, along with Jacob and RJ. They joined Dave in their gleeful expressions upon seeing my own.

"Come, let us take a closer look!" Dave grabbed hold of my arm and we all proceeded up towards Tetradnaught. We ended up climbing up a ladder to the side to get up to the very top where the cockpit entrance was located. Dave proceeded to open the hatch for me to give me a better look.

"Penny designed the entire thing, so it should also be easy for you to understand the controls," Dave pointed out. "Go ahead, jump in."

"Wait, _me?_ " I pointed to myself like an idiot as I stood there looking down at the cockpit. "You want me to get in there?"

"Yes _you_ , silly!" Dave smiled.

I was shaking a little bit as I let myself down into the cockpit, then took a seat at the controls. A bunch of little lights were flickering around the cockpit area, indicating stats about the machine, which I mostly couldn't understand. However, the controls themselves were so incredibly familiar that I felt like I could put my hands onto the levers and buttons and start the thing up right then and there.

"Penny here, as I've mentioned, is a huge fan of human videogames, so she's taken the opportunity to apply the… what was it?" Dave paused upon trailing off with his question, which triggered Penny to start gobbling in explanation. "Oh! Yes, the Xbox controller. Whatever that is. I'm sure you'll understand what that is, Kailey. Of course it's been installed and engineered into a much larger size for the sake of controlling Tetradnaught, but it's all there."

I looked hard at the controls. When I did, I could finally see the Xbox freaking controller in this inspired piece of machinery. The two large levers worked like control sticks, although each had trigger buttons on the top that worked like triggers to a gun. A few large buttons at the bottom of the pad in front of me indicated important components to working the machine itself.

I heard Penny start gobbling excitedly again, causing the other henchmen to chuckle as she spoke, this in itself their way of outwardly expressing their pride in the work they had just completed.

"Penny says that you'd know how to work and move Tetradnaught if you played… what game, Penny, Skyrim? Yeah, Skyrim. Trigger commands shoot weapons, the large button there causes Tetradnaught to jump and so on. Which brings me to mention that I've exchanged the four legs ability to move around, unlike the submarines, and instead gave it a unidirectional purpose. This allows it to be able to jump higher. We've tested its ability to jump at about its own height with the help of thrusters and stored pressure in the legs, of course."

"Oh my God," I muttered to myself excitedly. Holy shit, was this real life? Like, did a little baby pink octopus actually just build a robot inspired by damn video games? This was like, so freaking awesome but also so terrifying at the same time that I was speechless as I sat in the cockpit of this beast.

"Is this even legal?" I couldn't help but ask. "Yo, what if people find out about this?"

Dave scratched the back of his head in thought, obviously having never thought of that before. I was about to drop my fangirling in exchange for worry once more, but he seemed to be pretty laid back about all of it.

"Well, not really,” Dave said. "The humans have seen my submarine before and how it works, for example, and they never questioned that before. If they see Tetradnaught then they'll think nothing of it."

"But what if you're shooting shit up when they see it?"

"Oh, it's not like I'm going to go around shooting up the city on purpose or something! This machine is specifically made for combating North Wind. If the humans see it, which is highly unlikely, they would simply think it's something I'm using to save the penguins!"

I gently placed a hand on my face in a light facepalm. I was worried, sure, but Dave was right. People were actually fairly oblivious, like I have seen countless times. So long as they couldn't see what Tetradnaught could do, then I guess we'd be out of trouble.

"What did you end up doing with that QCU?" I asked.

"Well, Penny here took the initiative and has formed it into a power source as part of Tetradnaught," Dave began to explain. "Tetradnaught still runs on normal fuel, since that's what it was initially designed to run on, but Penny added the QCU to act as a second source of energy. This dual energy source lowers the risk of a more dangerous explosion due to less fuel. Don't get me wrong though, it'll still blow up if you shoot it up enough, but that's not gonna happen with the armor plating we've put on it. I'd also like to add that the pilot is protected from direct explosions, as the legs would take on the full force of an accident."

"As much as I still want to protest about this literally being a machine made to fight the shit out of North Wind…" I started, "it's really, _really_ cool."

Everybody started clapping then as Dave suddenly unleashed a series of gleeful _woos_ , which seemed to make an echo throughout the large garage area we were in. "Successful day, everybody!" Dave shouted. "We're prepared and on our way!"

Hopefully we wouldn't even have to use this thing against North Wind, and the group would continue to stay gone and out of our way. I agreed on being safe than sorry, but I also didn't want Dave to actually have to use this against North Wind. A battle wasn't something I wanted to happen, by all means.

But that was simply negative thinking. Things have been working out really well lately. I'm sure everything would work out just fine, and for the better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tetradnaught is actually heavily inspired by the Ferdinand in the Megaman Legends series.


	22. The Boss

"Kailey, I'm so glad you called!" My mom's voice came through the computer speakers, this on its own brightening up the darkened room. "We were just about to go to bed, so I'm glad you caught me. I don't know what to say… we received the check Octavius sent us. Your father and I are beyond blessed. I know it's late, but is Octavius around? I'd really like to talk with him and thank him personally."

"He's not here right now," I confessed. "As a matter of fact I haven't seen him around all day, not even this morning."

"Well please tell him to give us a call back, or better yet, we'll have to schedule another dinner out to thank him in person. What he did…" She paused, sniffling mildly before she resumed. “What he did was something that we couldn't obtain ourselves."

"I told you you’d end up getting the house you wanted…" I said with a smile. "Speaking of which, have you actually picked one out?"

"Not really…" Mom said somberly.

"What's wrong?" My own voice grew serious upon hearing my mom talk like that. "Is it—is it not enough money?" That was crazy talk, but I couldn't help but ask.

"No! Not at all, it's not that," Mom confessed. "It's just… we're picky, you know. We can't decide. When your father and I pick out a house it has to be the right one, or else we aren't going to buy it."

"Oh," I sighed.

"Hey, don't worry about it though. In the meantime we can pay off all of our bills. The house will come in due time. When the right one comes around, we'll know. You always know."

"Yeah…"

"Anyway, tell Octavius we said hi, and I'm sure your father is going to want to meet up again. When you're not too busy, of course."

"Yes, for sure!" I smiled once again. "I'm sure we can squeeze in a time sometime soon… we have a couple of pledge drives scheduled here in New York, one being early tomorrow morning. But after that we'll be back around that area."

Just then, Penny came into the room gobbling. Because she so abruptly came in I reached towards the computer as if to cover the camera, but upon remembering that this was only a audio call I had some relief about Mother accidentally seeing a walking, gobbling pink baby octopus come try and talk to me.

"What's that?" Mom asked. "Sounds like a chicken or something."

"Oh, it's nothing!" I chuckled nervously, placing my forefinger intently to my lips as I looked at Penny in a shush manner. Penny's eyes widened after I gave her this gesture, and she placed two of her tentacles below her eyes to show she was sorry. It didn't bother me though. She was too adorable to stay mad at for very long. "I've got to go," I finished then to my mom. “I love you!"

"Love you too…" Afterwards, the line was cut. I ended up spinning around in the chair to fully face Penny, who was still in that same position of wide-eyed worry as she was before.

"So? What is it you have to tell me?" I asked.

Like a switch, her worried expression became cheer as her eyes seemed to sparkle. She rushed over and grabbed a hold of my arm, and with another tentacle started tugging at the sides of my shirt eagerly.

I didn't say anything, but instead, humored her, (admittedly out of my own curiosity), and stood up to let her tug me along into the larger lab room where Dave kept his large cylinder of Medusa Serum. At first I didn't see anything different; that was, until I looked over to the large flat screen above some of the controls, and just below that, Jacob, RJ, and Edgar sitting there, surrounding an old _Nintendo 64_ system that had been crudely set up to the television.

"Whoa, no way!" I gasped. Penny and I ran over giddily like little school girls, then I instantly fell to my knees and went through all of the cartridges that were out. "No freaking way! You've got _Destruction Derby_? _Battle Tanx: Global Assault_ and _Megaman 64_? Hell, _Super Mario 64_?! Where did you get this? I freaking grew up with this system!"

Penny started gobbling, although her gobbles now keeping that excited childlike happiness in it that I could only hear out of her. Like always, Edgar stepped in with a pen and pad ready, and started writing down what she was saying. After he wrote down the translation was when I read what she had said, then responded.

"This is your collection? Damn, girl, you got good tastes." Excitedly, I picked up the two multiplayers out of the games she had out, and shot her one of my own large smiles. "I should be going to bed, since I've got to get up early tomorrow for another pledge drive… but how about a couple rounds of these? Bet you can't beat my high score."

Penny narrowed her eyes playfully at me, pointing one of her little tentacles at me sternly, then proceeded to gobble. I watched Edgar write down what she had said, and once the page turned to face me, I proceeded to mirror her expression, and pointing.

"You're on…" I laughed out loud at her challenge. I hadn't had anyone to play multiplayer with for this system in years, so this would be sweet. "Don't think just because you're a kid I'm going to go easy on you."

. . . . . . .

Staying up long after my bedtime was a horrific idea.

I ended up losing track of time and getting into an all-out brawl with Penny on both the racing and tank game. To say the least, she was a very worthy adversary—I wouldn't have expected anything less from her though, considering how she loved video games and built freaking giant robots inspired by them.

Nonetheless, I had to get up super early anyway. I hadn't seen Dave whatsoever yesterday, although the last time I had seen him he had urged me to get up on time, which was before the sun even came up. Despite my gaming marathon with Penny I surprisingly was able to force myself out of bed and get ready for another day of pledge driving.

Although I was tired as heck, I kept thinking about how well things have been going. I mean, aside from almost dying so many times where I've lost count, but you know, tis the burden of being… well, a criminal.

Yes, I've accepted it. I'm a criminal, but that doesn't mean I'm a bad person. _Lies, though! Lies, Kailey_ _!_ If I were such a nice person why was I willingly stealing penguins and tricking thousands, hell, millions of people into giving money to a literal lie? Not to mention that money was not going to saving the penguins, but more rather, stealing them and shit. Like, it was a horrible never-ending cycle, really. I'll admit it bothered me some, but I had gotten so _used_ to it.

Doing these things for Dave came almost as second nature and without question. It was really as if my own feelings didn't matter in comparison to his.

Once I had slipped on my lab coat and brushed out my hair one final time, I heard a knock at my door. Through my sluggish state I turned to look at it, wondering why anyone was knocking on it in the first place. I looked over at the clock that was in my quarters, realizing that it was a little past 6AM.

"Coming!" I said, attempting to make my voice loud to deter an oncoming yawn. I walked over and pressed the buttons needed to get the door open (which had taken some learning, to be honest). Once the door opened, surprise seemed to overcome my sleepiness.

"Dave?" I asked aloud. "Am I running late or something?" I was a little concerned of course. I had tried waking up early like he had asked me, so seeing him standing here at my door made me worry that we were actually running late. However, as I looked at him I realized he wasn't even in his disguise, so that couldn't have been the reason he was here.

"No… actually, I needed to show you… uhh… the schedule!" Dave said shakily. "I made some changes to the pledge drive schedule so I figured I'd show them to you now."

"Oh," I said, allowing the yawn to escape me finally. I would have normally wanted to question his weird behavior, but for one thing, it was normal of him to be weird, and secondly, I was too tired to care.

"Come along, dearest, I'll show you…" Dave wrapped his tentacle around my arm and started escorting me down the hallway. We ended up passing the labs and even completely avoided the command bay, so that was a little strange. I was half expecting us to go into my office, but we even passed by that, too.

"Where are we going? The lab is that way, you dork," I spoke, blinking a few times to try and get myself to wake up more.

"Oh, we're… going somewhere else," Dave admitted and then gestured towards a ladder that lead up to a hatch high above us. "Can you climb up the ladder?"

"Ugh.” I sighed and lightly rubbed both of my eyes with the back of my hands, attempting to do so without smudging my makeup. After I thought I got rid of whatever leftover eye crust that was in my eyes, I nodded, and began up the ladder after him. Beforehand I watched him open the hatch and then start up to the opening. It took me a bit longer than him but I managed to pull myself up the last few steps, and come out the other end.

"Why are we outside?" I asked groggily. I felt the cool air from inside the submarine change quickly to warm morning air. It wasn't until I finally got out of the hatch that I turned to see what was in front of me.

Instantly, what tired feelings I still had seemed to gradually melt away like snow falling off a hot rooftop. We were out on the water, somewhere in the middle of the New York bay, yet far off to where the buildings stood shimmering in the morning light like pillars of golden bars. To the left in the distance was the Statue of Liberty, even her aqua colored skin and robes glowing along with the dawn.

What was most odd about the situation however, was a table and two chairs set there among the large platform atop of the submarine. Set up on the tables was a large and crispy waffle, topped with chocolate chips and whipped cream. There was also a single red rose in a vase.

"What's this?" I asked. It was then, as the last bits of tiredness slipped away, did my heart start to uncontrollably beat harder.

"It's just breakfast," Dave tried to say casually. "Come sit down."

"Okay…" I responded nervously. I walked over and took the seat that had the food served in front of it, while Dave took the one in front of me. My face kept wanting to blush, but I don't think it could quite make up its mind. I'm sure in better lighting Dave would notice I was changing colors like a freaking chameleon. "Seriously though, what's this all about?" I managed to break through my awkward state, and force out a proper sentence.

"Breakfast, like I said…" Dave smiled as he looked at me, propping a tentacle under him to keep his 'chin' upward. "I know how much you like chocolate… and sunrises."

I looked from him briefly and outward onto the bay. I could finally see the sun peering up in between the buildings in the distance, which sent light over the water and caused it again to look like it was shining.

"Yeah, I do…" I responded, again, able to force out properly structured sentences despite how nervous I was. I don't know why I was acting so nervous though. Like, Dave was just being nice. Totally not a big deal.

From my response Dave sat back, suddenly swallowing hard, despite how he was trying hard not to show it. His eyes looked down at the table before his eyes rose back upward to look into mine.

"You know… I was… well… going to wait until you finished eating but I don't know if I want to wait," he confessed. I watched him as one of his tentacles reached behind him and pulled out a small box. _Another small black velvet box._

I felt my heart skip a beat, and then proceed to rush in attempts to catch up with its missed step. Despite my efforts to hold my emotions back, my cheeks flushed, and I stared wide eyed at the little box for what it seemed like forever.

Slowly but surely, Dave opened the box. My mind seemed to take snapshots as it was revealed to me; it was a silver banned ring, lightly entangled with rose gold and white gold embellishes on the band. Additional smaller white diamonds were also among the band itself. The main diamond itself was a round diamond, although with it hitting the morning light like it was, it seemed to look like the sun itself was being given to me.

"You…" I felt my throat start to tighten as I tried to speak. I felt as if I was being muffled out, although with all my strength I fought this to finish. "You didn't have to do that," I said softly.

"You say that all the time," Dave said gently, then lightly sighed. With another one of his tentacles he reached over and touched my hand that was sitting on the table. His cold touch in contrast to my warm hand gave me a brief wave of chills, which triggered those butterflies to return into my chest and stomach. "I know I didn't have to..." He paused, only shortly. "I wanted too."

I watched him then lift my hand upwards, and then with his other tentacle pluck the ring from its place in the box and slip it onto my finger.

"Kailey… I know this was supposed to be… well, a made up thing," he started to admit, although he began to drift off again.

"Yes?" I asked, sitting up slightly from my seat as I stared back at him.

The both of us grew quiet as we looked at each other. I'm pretty sure I forgot about literally everything else in the world then and there. It was as if the world had been pulled from underneath me like a scroll, and I was floating. I wasn't there anymore, really. I was somewhere else, and only he was there. It was so weird… and so breathtaking at the same time. I felt like if he wasn't holding my hand I'd disappear.

Why was I feeling like this though? _What was this?_ I had an urge to slap myself, for a brief moment thinking this was a dream.

"Kailey… will you—"

Suddenly, Dave was interrupted, causing him to tear away from what was happening. Because of this break I felt as if gravity came back over me. Sound was returning, but with a series of urgent gobbles erupting at our place atop of the submarine.

I looked over, and two of Dave's henchmen had come out of the hatch with their tentacles wiggling in the air, terrified, as their eyes looked at us harshly as if they had just seen somebody die.

" _What_ _?_ " Dave gasped in response to their urgent gobbles. His expression suddenly fell, revealing a frightened frown that I didn't think I'd ever see him make.

"What's wrong?" I asked, urgency taking over my mindset.

"North Wind," Dave said, as he stared off towards the shore. "They're attacking my building."

. . . . . . .

Dave managed to change into his Dr. Brine disguise and rush out of the car more quickly than I did, although we would soon find an abundance of civilians and police officers blocking the entryway towards the back of the building where we pulled up. People's eyes were glued onto the building, looking around anxiously at a cloud of dark smoke that rose from the other side. It was only when Dave started shoving through the crowd did people finally turn their worries from the building itself, and to its owner.

"Sir! Dr. Brine! You can't go in there—it's too dangerous!" a police officer informed once we made our way to the front of the crowd. "There's three… I don't even know what they're called out there! Robots of some kind! They're some kind of terrorists!"

"Let me through, I don't care!" Dave demanded. "This is _my_ building!"

"I am aware of that, Doctor… but we can't let you in. Like I said, it's too dangerous."

"I said, _I don't care_ _!_ " Dave stated far more vehemently than before. It was only after a brief staredown did the cop slip to the side, finally allowing us through.

The crowd gasped as we rushed towards the building, some cries and worried conversations coming into being with every passing second that it took us to reach one of the back entry doors. It was only once we got inside that I turned my worry for the civilians watching on the sidelines, and combined it to the situation that had now manifested seemingly instantly.

"What are we going to do?" I couldn't help but ask. I was not only concerned about Dave's building and this attack, but the people watching. It was a surprise that the people didn't even realize that these 'terrorists' were actually an interspecies organization. I didn't know how much North Wind was willing to break the code at this point. This seemed drastic, by all means.

"I don't know yet," Dave stated firmly. We continued scurrying for some time until we reached another large room that I had yet to find before. Here, a bunch of his henchmen had gathered in front of a large computer screen, with a set of controls stationed in front of it. It was only when Dave walked into the room did his henchmen turn to face him, as one started to gobble what was going on.

As Dave was being informed, I took a hard look at the large computer monitor. There were images of camera feeds, each camera showing a different perspective in the front of what was going on. There was smoke on some of the feeds that were closest to the building, blinding the cameras, although the ones that I did manage to see through showed me exactly what we were facing.

Like the police officer had told us, there were three robots, each different in terms of how they looked and what they were made to do.

The largest mech, which seemed to be about 15 feet tall, was big and bulky, obviously meant to be the defensive. It had two large riffle canons on its back, and along its arms were what looked like smaller turret weapons.

The second largest robot, which was a few feet shorter, wasn't bulky, but instead traded the defense structure of the other one for lighter looking material, meant for offensive and fast attacks. It had a paw-like hand on the right, while on the left it had a large arm cannon attached to it in replacement for a limb. There were rocket boosters on the back of this robot, which looked to add to its quick looking design.

Finally, there was the smallest, but overall the weirdest looking robot. It was hovering off the ground, and bore a single large spherical shape. Two arms sat on each side, large in all respects, and both bared large fist like weapons for more traditional hand to hand and up close combat.

"Send out the support tanks," Dave commanded after a few moments of listening to the henchmen speak. "Send RJ, Kenny, and Jacob to pilot the support tanks."

One henchmen that had heard the orders got to work and quickly left the front to tell the order. Dave started to give away more commands then.

"Alan, Rick, man the battle stations! Get those defensive turrets on the buildings working again!" He paused, only momentarily, to look at two other henchmen in the room. "Hugh, Jack, man the battle stations, too! Help them, we need those turrets working!"

The henchmen that were called upon quickly got to work as well, and scurried out the room, leaving Dave and I to turn our attention to the screen. Dave waved his hand to one of the henchmen working the controls, which connected us to a transmission. After a few seconds of white noise was when we heard Classified's voice.

"Dave! Finally, you decide to speak to us!" Classified shouted sternly. "North Wind is hereby here to place you under arrest for the kidnapping of pegwings and the destruction of North Wind's main base. You can come with us easily now, or we will be forced to destroy your building and arrest you by force."

"As _if_ _!_ " Dave scoffed. "You think that just because you have new mechs means you'll be able to stop me?"

Just then on the camera screens, the three support tanks Dave sent out appeared in front of the building, and before North Wind. Because of this I heard Classified grumble irritably, although this didn't stop him from trying to approach the situation like he normally would.

"Fine, you made your choice, David. Prepare to have your mechs taken out!" The connection was cut then as sudden combat erupted on the screens.

Bullets flew instantly between both sides, leaving me with my mouth opened as I watched how North Wind fought. Each robot had a distinct fighting style, which conveniently fit each member of North Wind. The smaller, floating mech seemed to be piloted by Eva and Short Fuse; this could be seen in the aerodynamic dodges Eva enforced, while Short Fuse unleashed powerful, up close and explosive attacks. The quick one was Classified, and the defensive mech seemed to be Corporal.

A series of concerned gobbles suddenly filled the room, which broke my trance from the screen. I watched Penny rush into the room then, almost pleadingly, until her eyes caught a glimpse of the camera feed. A heavy pause seemed to overwhelm the room then; that kind of silence filled with a dreading anticipation. It took me a moment, but thinking about it harder then, I realized that was Penny's team out there, and Kenny, who she seemed to be the most bonded to, was one of them.

Just then, a sudden flash pulled my attention from Penny and back to the camera feed. I couldn't believe my eyes at first… two of the support tanks actually _blew up_.

My heart sunk the second that explosion went off. Penny started crying then, placing two tentacles onto her face to cover her eyes entirely. Like a domino effect, and rather instantly, the third support tank followed the other two into a blast of fire.

I seriously could not believe what was happening right now. Would—would RJ, Jacob, and Kenny actually survive that? Or did they… did the just—?

Through Penny's cries I could feel the heaviness of the room. With every passing second then, as I looked at the flames engulfing Dave's henchmen… Penny's friends… heck, _my_ friends, I suddenly felt a wave of fury overcome me. This fury was mixed with that heavy feeling over my heart from before, as if someone had reached inside me and was squeezing it with their fist.

"Prepare Tetradnaught…" Dave suddenly sighed. "I'll go in next."

If I wasn't feeling bad already, that did the trick to push me off of the edge. In addition to what I was already feeling, I felt cold waves pulse through me as my heart started racing. With the already heavy feeling in my chest, this made every pump dreadful.

"Dave, you can't do that!" I broke from my petrified state and looked at him. "You can't!"

"Penny is too small to pilot Tetradnaught. I have to do this."

"No you don't!" I felt like my eyes wanted to start watering up but I sucked them back in. "Let me go instead."

"Are you joking?" Dave's voice seemed to grow stressed the moment I offered myself up for this. "I'm not letting you do that!"

"Look at this situation at all corners, Dave! You said so before: I'd know how to pilot Tetradnaught based on Penny's designs. Secondly, what if somebody sees you? With all those people outside, if something were to happen to you, and they found out you weren't actually a human what would happen then? All this would be _for nothing_ _!_ "

Dave was quiet. All he did was stare at me, that dread finally overcoming him and in his expression as he looked my way. This was the only way. It had to be.

"Let _me_ handle this," I said. We stared at each other, long and hard, for as long as I could possibly do. Every second seemed like hours, so with every passing second I felt as if I was wasting time. I didn't want to leave though. I didn't want this to happen. But for him? I think I'd do anything…

I stepped backward a few times as I attempted to break our locked gazes. After a few steps, I tore myself away and rushed down the hall, working my way through the building just as I had remembered before when Dave brought me here the first time.

After a few moments, I got to the large garage where Tetradnaught was located. A few henchmen were there, so I made sure to get to work as quickly as I could.

"Open the doors!" I commanded, "I'm going in next."

They looked at one another, worriedly at first, before they did as I told them. I heard the large doors begin opening once they got to the controls, then I jumped onto the ladder to climb up towards Tetradnaught's cockpit. The moment I reached the hatch and opened it, I jumped inside, buckling myself in and preparing for what was about to unfold.

Like I had done this a thousand times (which I technically had based on the controls), I soon brought Tetradnaught to life. As the many buttons and controls started lighting up like a Christmas tree, and I could see my way out of the garage, I took in a deep breath.

To be honest, I really didn't want this to happen. _I was scared_. The idea of fighting North Wind was something that I never thought would happen again, especially with me going to face them alone. I still contemplated on whether or not I could convince them to go about this peacefully, but the only way that would happen would be if Dave surrendered. At least that's what I thought would happen. I don't know… I had to do _something_ _._

Through my fear, however, I tried thinking about what had just happened. North Wind, supposedly the good guys, straight up _blew up_ the support tanks. You'd think they'd somehow do things like this more caringly, claiming to be the good guys and all, but no. They were willing to hurt RJ, Jacob, and Kenny. And seeing how that made Penny react? I didn't know what to say really… I _couldn't_ say anything. It was like my own family had been dishonored, my own _child_ even.

"No way…" I hissed as I placed my hands on the levers to assume control of the robot. "They come into _my house_ …" It technically wasn't _my house_ but whatever. " _I'll show them_ _._ "

Tetradnaught had more power than I had anticipated, but I didn't care. This was on. There was no turning back and I had no plans on doing so. Once I guided Tetradnaught completely out of the garage was when I turned it around, and with a quick decision, forced it to jump.

I felt the G's hit my shoulders as the robot leapt, taking me all the way over towards the frontmost side of the building. I managed to land in front of the doors then, blocking North Wind in front from approaching the Octo Corp building, and the downed support tanks behind me.

"Ah, Dave! So you haven't had enough, have you?" Classified spoke through the speakers of his mech. This in itself pissed me off. He was so cocky… he thought he had this under control? He thought he was going to actually get away with this?

Through my anger I popped the hatch open, and propped myself out of the top of the robot's head to get a good look at North Wind. It was only when I revealed myself did Classified comment.

"You're not Dave!" His exclamation came out in a distraught sort of manner. It seemed me being a human and all still somehow made their efforts more difficult.

"Yeah, it's me! Not so happy to see _me_ , huh?" I blasted. "Look _you_ , do you know what kind of shit you just threw into the fan just now? There are people everywhere, watching us right now! Do you really want to risk them figuring out who you are?"

"Your threats do not scare us!" Classified fought back.

"Look!" I settled my voice, just a little, to come off as a bit more kindly then, although I was still yelling for the sake of making myself heard from freaking 30 feet up high. I put my leg up on the side of the opening of the hatch, and crossed my arms over myself, as a way to try and look relaxed. "I know you'd much rather avoid any more of this," I stated coolly. "Of c _ourse_ you don't want to risk people finding out what you are. Tell you what, if you four agree to become my slaves, I suppose I could let this fly. How about that? That way Dave won't have to resort to… I don't know, hurting you, or whatever."

"Join forces with the octopi? I don't think so," Classified responded.

I felt my face turn red the instant my attempts at being civil was forced down the drain. Through my following huff, I finally put my foot down back where it was and leaned over the head of Tetradnaught to unleash another series of loud yells. "Fine! Do what you want! Just don't try begging for mercy!" I fussed. I finally dropped back down into the cockpit, though just before my head went inside I looked at them one last time, glaring at them as hard as I could, and flipped them off, straining my hand and middle finger harshly to emphasize the F-you I was giving them.

Once I closed the hatch over me and buckled myself in was when things really got intense. Despite my unwillingness to do this, I still remembered what they just did and what they were willing to do. Those assholes hurt RJ, Jacob, and Kenny—maybe even killed them! I don't know. I hope not, but they were willing to hurt them in the first place. I had to treat this as a real threat, because if they were risking going this far, they'd hurt me, too. I wasn't going to go easy on them. These bitches were going to get hit full force.

I pulled the trigger, starting the fight.

Although the inside of the cockpit muffled the loud gunfire and cannons that I sent outward, the force it made upon firing was strong. Every shot was like a giant wave of energy, creating recoil that waved the entire robot back ever so slightly. A few of the blasts managed to shake North Wind, although they managed to avoid the first line of fire.

As North Wind scattered, my focus rose to comply with the task at hand. I was still trying to determine who I should attack first by the time they began taking formation. Corporal's defensive mech was slow and overall an easy target, but it would take more effort to take out due to his armor. Classified's was fast, and so was the one Eva and Short Fuse were in, so they were going to be hard targets. But, if I did hit them they'd be taken out much easier.

I was trying to make up my mind and watch them at the same time, which proved to be a difficult task initially. I was used to this kind of focus, however, due to playing video games all the time, so after a few moments I was able to catch up and figure out how to work the other controls that revealed radar and other such features.

Eva and Short Fuse's floating robot was quick, and annoying. It flew up around the upper portions of the robot, making it difficult to get them in my line of fire. While they 'distracted' me, Corporal took the first shot at me.

The hit was strong. I could feel the gun shot as it collided with the front left leg of my mech. However, upon looking at the status in these other controls, it didn't do much damage. With that realization that it would take some time for North Wind to break through my armor, I decided to give it my full go.

I launched Tetradnaught forward, causing its legs to lower, making it up to fifty miles an hour to charge at Corporal and Classified. They dodged me of course, but I had other ideas. I spun the robot around, firing canons as I did so, which created a circular line of fire around me. Due to Eva and Short Fuse's persistent hovering around Tetradnaught's face, this caused distortion and blinded them.

"Take this, hoe!" I yelled, and pulled the trigger to the smaller turrets. I was using the radar as opposed to looking out the windshield, so I timed my fire just so to where it hit Eva and Short Fuse's robot as it came around again.

This didn't exactly kill them, but it did the trick at making their robot go haywire. Due to its top heavy and side heavy structure from the arms, it started tumbling around through the smoke.

"Eva, Short Fuse!" I heard Classified's muffled voice from inside the cockpit call out to them, although his call didn't do much to help his teammates. I'm sorry to say, however, that this was the moment I started to become a little cocky myself. I turned my attention to Classified and Corporal's mechs, who were standing there, watching their team mates fly out of control.

I felt like I wanted to yell an epic punny one liner, but before I could do so I felt another hit on my upper left leg again. Eva and Short Fuse had managed to get control of their mech, and now was punching and tearing at me. The status in the controls indicated nothing major was happening, but I still felt as if this targeting of one of Tetradnaught's legs would be my downfall. As dumb as these assholes seemed sometimes, they worked together well, and probably had this planned out the moment I came out.

"Get off me!" I yelled. I managed to get them away from me by making Tetradnaught jump again. The sudden force of going up did the trick to rid of them. When I came back down, however, and landed with a heavy thud, I finally turned the cannon on them and fired.

This time, it worked. I watched as their robot spun out of control again, catching smoke, and like a sparkler going off, from one side and to another it caught fire. After a few more agonizing seconds, they finally hit the ground, causing more sparks as the mech skidded across the concrete.

"How do you like it!?" I shouted again. I was dismissing any mercy at this point. It was live or die for me.

"Classified! We need to retreat!" I heard Corporal speak urgently due to their two downed teammates. "We need to get them out of here!"

"No! We can do this!" Classified responded. I didn't know if this made him a good leader or not, risking his teammates and all, but he was obviously onto something. "Corporal, keep the target! Fire again!"

A few seconds of delay went by, as Corporal struggled to obey Classified's commands, before he fired at me again. Once more, he fired at my upper left leg. The force this time sent a signal to me that the armor was slightly shaken, although it wasn't giving in yet.

I clenched my teeth as I let off a growl. I steered the robot around to aim myself at Corporal, although before I could line my fire, Classified's mech jumped in front of my windshield, clinging onto Tetradnaught's head as he started firing at my face with his arm cannon, causing the windshield to crack, but not shatter. It was this heavy distraction that caused me to lose track momentarily of the fight. Taking the opportunity, Corporal shot in the same spot.

"I can't see—shit!" I yelled. I started spinning the robot again to try and rid Classified from his latch onto the windshield, although he stayed tough. I tried holding out, but it was hard. I hated spinning in an office chair, so spinning like this was causing me distress on its own.

Right before I was ready to stop, Classified finally lost his grip and flew off of me. However, I couldn't quite get back into the fight myself just yet. I was dizzy, causing me to be slow in my reaction time as I prepared to fire at Classified's downed mech, who had taken significant damage from the forceful fall.

"Corporal! Argh! Corporal, fire!" I heard Classified yell.

Within an instant, and before I could gather myself, Corporal fired again. This time red flashing lights sprang to life, showing me that the leg had finally taken enough damage to remove the armor plating.

I didn't believe it… I was _exposed_.

I felt sudden urgency take over as I realized exactly what kind of situation I was in. I tried ignoring my dizzy state, and went trigger happy, firing cannon after cannon, and machine gun after gun. The bullets zipped and pelted the concrete, and luckily some of the blasts hit Classified, causing his cannon-free arm to spark up, making it stop working on him then and become limp at the mech's side.

"Classified! We need to retreat!" Corporal's voice pleaded once more. "We need to get the others out of here! You as well!"

"We're so close!" Classified blasted. I saw him set his mech up straight, despite his sparking and useless arm, and come charging at me again.

I continued unleashing as many bullets as I could, although after a few more shots, the stream of cannon fire in particular stopped.

"Shit!" I hissed out loud. _I had run out of freaking ammo; what the hell!?_

Through my distress, Classified got to me, and started firing back into the leg with his remaining cannon. This time, with every hit the controls started flashing with what looked like a freaking life gauge. With every red light that pulsed, the seconds counted down to which would soon be another explosion that would send me down like the others.

That feeling you get when you're anticipating someone to hit you? Or that feeling you get before fireworks go off, and you flinch at the thought of the loud sound? That was what I was feeling, only it was striking at me all the more powerful. Because I wasn't just about to watch fireworks, or was going to be punched in the face. I was going to freaking _blow up_.

I felt so scared that I did whatever I could in a frantic wave of movements to get Classified off of me. I jumped again, causing him to let go of Tetradnaught's leg, and turned around in front of him to send what shots of turret fire I had left.

"Corporal!" Classified said, as he tried to bring his mech back to a stand. "Do it—fire now!"

I jumped again in attempts to deter Corporal's fire, and steered closer to him. I was prepared to run him over and pump his mech full of as much freaking lead as I could to stop him. I was prepared to do anything to them to save myself.

Although it wasn't enough.

After I came back down from my jump and started the charge, Corporal fired at me once again. The cannon blasted out and hit the open wound on Tetradnaught's leg. From this, I heard a loud screeching sound, and then an explosion followed.

I remember Tetradnaught flailing about once the train of explosions got to the rest of the robot beneath me, it fell backwards, causing the windshield to face upward at the sky. Smoke surrounded the face of Tetradnaught, quickly turning black as it caused a tunnel-like effect before my line of vision, narrowing my view of the sky to only a few feet. I watched the clouds that rolled by, as along with that smoke, sparks, and flames consumed the sides of the windshield.

However, the fire itself could not touch me, but the fire was causing the inside of the cockpit to heat up.

The cockpit air started feeling as if it was becoming dense from this heat, and what small amounts of smoke that had managed to get in, along with my growing fear, made it feel as if I was breathing fire. It was hard for me to sweat as it was, so this made it all the more difficult as I struggled to stay conscious, and cool.

I couldn't help but think, as I tried to steer my panic away and focus on the skies through the windshield, if this was worth it. Was it all for nothing? Was I making the right choice, being in this situation?

Of course I was… I _had_ to be making the right choice. I would rather this be me in here than Dave. I would rather know I went out trying to protect someone, than sit on the sides and do nothing. God knows I wasn't doing this _for nothing_.

Even as my senses were overcome with darkness and silence, blackening out the chaos surrounding me, I still kept that thought in my mind. I kept it until I couldn't even think anymore.

It was all I had left.


	23. Another Long Dark

I remember seeing shadows—faint shadows looking down at me, while some walked by. The ones walking were fast, leaving smears in places they had once been, like black paint smudged onto a dry canvas, only to evaporate after a few moments and disappear without a trace. Where we were—well, where they were—changed constantly. It was like looking into a window of smudged up dreams; it was constantly changing and moving, and yet it was happening all at the same time.

Seeing things like this would normally make someone uncomfortable, maybe even scared. A nightmare: a distortion of reality in which the events and places of the shadows were uncontrollable by the mind.

And yet I was calm.

I let myself drift in and out, allowing these images to carry me along as if I was still being taken away by a current. After a while, I remember seeing red and blue lights, smudged like the rest of what I was seeing and contributing to the paint-like reality with its color. Then, in replacement of those colored lights, white lights surrounded me.

After that I went under again. But not for long. At least, it didn't feel like a long time. It was all black so briefly that it was simply as if all the lights had turned off, and then flicked on again. When things started to come to once more, that was when all the shadows and smudges felt as if they were being smoothed out. I was finally waking up.

My eyes opened up first, but it took some time for me to become fully aware of where I was. I chose to ignore how terrible I felt to focus more on the lights above me, then the needles in my hands and the wires on my chest.

I listened. I heard the soft beep sound of the heart monitor I was attached to, and I heard someone crying.

I turned my head to the right, slowly then, to see Dave still in his disguise, his face buried in his hands and his white lab coat smudged up with ash.

He was actually crying. _For me?_

"So… you decided to take me to a hospital this time?" I joked, managing to grin sheepishly at my own sarcasm. This seemed to instantly pull Dave up from his soft sobs, and he looked up at me. His glistening and tear-filled eyes seemed to light up the moment he saw me awake.

"Kailey!" He gasped, standing up then to walk over to my bedside. "You're—you're okay? How are you feeling?"

"To be honest?" I asked myself, then continued with an answer. "I feel like shit. Well, like I-was-trapped-in-a-room-with-a-bunch-of-smokers-and-passed-out kind of shit, but you know, whatever. But… what happened?"

"North Wind…" Dave's voice lowered in attempts to keep the conversation quiet. "North Wind retreated. The wolf's mech was too damaged, and the owl and seal's mech was completely destroyed, so they retreated."

"What about the others?" I asked groggily. "Is Kenny, RJ, and Jacob alive?"

"They are," Dave sighed. "They're fine. They managed to get out themselves while you were fighting North Wind."

"Thank God," I said, straining my voice then as I closed my eyes. I felt a wave of emotion come over me but I didn't want to start crying. I was too tired to cry. Afterwards I coughed, but only briefly. "How about me? Am I like, horribly disfigured now?" I asked.

"No… you're not," Dave stated seriously. "The cockpit protected you from the fire and the majority of the smoke. You may have a cough for a while, but the doctors here say you'll be okay."

"Okay…" I responded. "But what do _you_ think, doctor?" I smiled tiredly at him again. Even lying in a hospital bed I couldn't help but joke around.

From my smile he finally managed to do the same. He placed a hand on mine gently above the needles to where his touch couldn't hurt me. "I think it's a miracle," he admitted, although his composure suddenly began to melt as a frown replaced his smile. "I shouldn't have put you in that situation… What they _did to you_ …"

Before his voice wanted to trail off into another one of his bitter rants I lifted my left hand, placing it on top of his in return. Briefly, I shocked even myself remembering the ring he put on my finger. I think the both of us looked at it briefly, yet admirably, before I managed to speak.

"I know I didn't have to do it," I mimicked his words that he often spoke to me. "I wanted to."

What bitterness he wanted to show was withdrawn when I said that. His soft smile returned as he looked at me. Despite the circumstances I was in, I don't think I could have asked for anything more. At the time, I didn't think there was anything that could take that kind of feeling away.

. . . . . . .

It was only until the next day that I was released from the hospital. I had started feeling better by that evening, but everyone had protested that I'd stay overnight for observation.

When it came to the supposed pledge drive we had scheduled the day I… well, _blew up_ , Dave managed to push it back until I felt better. We were about to head that way, although I found myself glued to the computer in the submarine, streaming newscasts about the incident.

It was weird, seeing myself on TV. Well, not really myself but Tetradnaught, knowing I was _in_ there. I honestly didn't know why people weren't flipping out about this. Even the news casters seemed to call this "Octo Corps efforts to stop a terrorist attack on their organization".

 _Haha! Ha_. Oh, God. That's rich. At least they didn't find out about North Wind, and Octo Corp actually being run by actual octopuses which were actually behind the penguin kidnappings.

The only different thing about this was that I was getting credit for the fight. The news casters made sure to let everyone know that was _me_ in Tetradnaught. There was even some zoomed-in shots of me on top of the robot shouting at North Wind and then proceeding to flip them off, so of course they knew it was me in there with that footage. Not quite sure what people would think about this, but I wasn't all that worried. If there weren't mobs at our door now then we'd be fine.

The following newscast after my story caught me off guard though. It was about… _Mr. Issa_ _?_

"Dave, come here please," I said, although I kept my eyes glued to the screen. I heard Dave come up behind me, the two of us then looking together at the "shocking news from Nevada".

"Mr. Malik Issa, owner of Issa Industries located in Nevada, has been arrested for illegal possession of Government resources," was all that news lady needed to say for Dave to grow angry.

"They did this…" he hissed irritably. "While North Wind attacked us they also set him up to prevent me from gathering more resources!"

"How do you know that?" I asked, finally turning around to look at him. "He could have just messed up."

"He never messes up!" Dave yelled. The yell caused me to shiver, due to it being so loud and catching me by surprise. "First they attack my building and then they take away the only business partner I have for gaining valuable resources?!"

"Dave, everything will be okay," I tried to say, although he seemed to actually ignore me this time. I had noticed he was peeved by what had happened, of course, but he was showing his anger about this more and more each day.

"North Wind will pay for this…" Dave grunted under his breath, as he strained that scowl of his. "Soon…"

I probably should have said something to him, but at the time I just rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to the computer.

. . . . . . .

Later that day, we drove up toward the location for our next pledge drive. It was fairly quiet in the parking lot, despite the sheer amount of cars that were there. What made this entry even more awkward, in that sort of weird silence, was Dave.

He was being extremely quiet, and whenever I looked over at him, he still had an unhappy expression on his face. Sometimes it would be a glare, or a mild frown, but at other times he would be scowling, which made me uncomfortable. I figured it was the problems North Wind had caused, although I didn't want to try and approach him about it. Not yet, at least. With him being angry like this it almost scared me to try and talk to him about it.

Instead, I stayed quiet too, and followed him inside the building that would be the host of the pledge drive.

Upon opening the doors, however, the silence was instantly torn apart as a wave of applause came through the doorway at us.

All lined up, yet facing our direction, was all the civilians who had come to donate. They looked excited, perhaps even more so than usual, as their loud claps and cheers were sent our way, creating momentary forgetfulness within me about my concerns for Dave.

I was half expecting Dave to get out of his little rut and start dancing, but regardless of what I thought he'd normally do, he continued walking to the front, his expression… well, _expressionless_. The crowd cheered on anyway, dismissing this weird behavior yet again, while I tried placing myself into the greeting routine and waved at everyone as I passed by. I tried keeping a smile on my face to counter Dave's lacking of one.

Once we got to the front of the line and behind the donation counter, the people started coming up towards us. I took care of most of the collections anyway, so this sort of attention was thrown on me regardless. But, while people slipped their checks, credit cards, and 20 dollar bills at me, I suddenly found a new item being thrown in front of me.

 _Images of Tetradnaught from the fight yesterday_.

"Please sign my photo, Mrs. Brine!" One younger girl asked me cheerfully.

"You rock! Fighting off those terrorists like that! Please autograph my picture!" another boy said.

"You're like some kind of superhero!"

"I'll bet you'll get an action figure, or inspire a comic book series!"

"What you did was amazing! And you survived! It's a miracle!"

All of these exclamations of glee and fondness from these many people caught me really off guard. Like, I'm pretty sure I stood there, looking at all the photos like dumbass for an incredibly long time before I managed to even pick up a pen to do what these people were asking me to do. I mean, really? _Me?_ A hero? Regular ol' me, being 'up there' with Dave to these people? I couldn't believe it. It was like—really too much, honestly. I didn't know what to do with all this admiration.

"Oh… you're too kind, really," I awkwardly smiled at them, but they took this as me just being modest.

"Kick ass, Mrs. Brine! You're a badass!" I heard someone cry in the back.

Never in my life would I have ever thought I'd been equated to a 'badass'. Another goal had somehow been met. _Oh my God_.

I started signing the many images of Tetradnaught, although sometimes cringing at my own signature as I did so. It seemed that this didn't bother the people though. I may not have seen myself just yet as a 'badass' or super good at writing signatures, but these people literally thought the polar opposite. All because I decided to fight North Wind the other day.

The more signatures I wrote, and the more fans I met, I started to feel good. It was really nice, knowing that people thought of me so fondly. Even through my typical awkwardness, I managed to sort out the donations given to me and the signature requests without much fault. To be honest, I was so preoccupied with dealing with this attention that I didn't pay attention at first to just how much these people were giving us. I just wrote down the amount of donations given, and proceeded onward.

After a while, I found myself turning around to look for Dave. He was dealing with his own flood of fans when I saw him, although his way of meeting with these people and absorbing their praise was much more… _normal_. He wasn't smiling; he wasn't dancing around or doing weird stretchy shit. He was calm, signed what autographs were given to him, shook a few hands, and continued onward.

 _This wasn't like him at all…_ It was only then, and then only, did I feel a weird sensation in my chest. It wasn't the butterflies or anything like that, but that gut feeling that something was very _wrong_.

. . . . . . .

" _Jesus Christ_ _!_ " I gasped out loud. We were back in the submarine, so my voice was made even louder due to the echoing effect. "Holy shit, Dave! We made over 748 thousand dollars! And not only that, but with the people contributing monthly, this will all add up to over 2 million by the end of the year!"

How it was even possible to retrieve that kind of money so easily was beyond me.

"What do you think? How much you think we can do with that? I'm sure it will pay off a good amount of our debts, right?"

"It won't," Dave responded bitterly. He was on the computer with a few of his henchmen beside him, while a few others were over at the large cylinder of Medusa Serum. Because they all seemed to stay in the work routine, including Dave, and along with his response, it made me feel funny.

I kept myself quiet, pressing my lips together in a tight hold as I tried to get away from that gross feeling I kept having. I wanted to ask him what was wrong, but at the same time I was afraid to do so. He was just so mad that I felt as if asking would only bring out an eruption. So, for the time I sat idly by as I finished counting up the rest of the income from the pledge drive.

A couple of gobbles came from the henchmen at the computers, and the henchmen at the large container of Medusa Serum acknowledged them, triggering some sort of mechanism that caused the container to tilt, and then be placed into a platform for transport.

"Good, everything is prepared then?" Dave asked next.

A couple of gobbles responded. The response was straightforward, and although the gobbles most of the time sounded about the same, these were serious.

I finally broke. I couldn't take this anymore.

"Dave, can you please tell me what's going on?" I finally sat up from my chair and approached Dave, who for the time kept his back to me. "You've been acting funny for the last few days… Something is wrong."

"It won't be wrong for long," Dave stated, almost malevolently. "I have everything under control."

"Then tell me!" My voice uncontrollably rose due to how he continued to act. It was only then that he turned around to look at me, although instead of seeing his larger-than-life smile that he would give, that continuous frown took its place.

"Fine, you want to know?" he scoffed. "Our routine of going to each penguin exhibit throughout the country is slow, and it's wasting time. With North Wind obviously out there now and proving as a threat, hurting you even, my revenge needs to go faster. So I've come up with a way to hit all the penguins throughout the United States at once, without having to gather them myself."

"What do you mean?" I narrowed my eyes. “That's impossible."

"Not anymore…" Dave sneered. "This is Medusa Serum 2.0. I've added components to the serum that will allow only the targeting of penguins. With this technology I have created a mechanism that will distribute the serum through the atmosphere. In a matter of weeks it will hit every penguin in radius of the U.S and turn them all into the scum they are."

My narrowed eyes widened then. The story about his ray gun from before was crazy as it was, but now a freaking weapon that would distribute the Medusa Serum into a gaseous element that could reach the penguins throughout freaking America? The thought of it was scary, to be honest. _He_ was scaring me.

"Dave, this is wrong…" My response came out without my acknowledgement. For once I had no filter. "You really should reconsider this."

"Wait a second," Dave hissed, his anger bubbling at my statement. "Did you— _did you talk to the penguins_ _?_ "

I felt like I was caught doing something bad, but at the same time my mind was buzzing with questions to why he resorted to that statement. I stiffened, but managed to respond honestly. "Well, yes," I said.

"How could you!?" Dave's suppressed rage came out now, directly at me. "Those penguins manipulated _you too_ _?_ This is what I'm talking about! This is why those wretched creatures have RUINED MY LIFE!"

"Dave, calm down," I tried to say calmly, which contrasted his yells.

"IT'S JUST LIKE BEFORE! HOW ON EARTH COULD I POSSIBLY THINK YOU WERE ANY DIFFERENT? OF COURSE YOU'D THINK PENGUINS ARE CUTE AND IN NEED OF PROTECTION!"

"Dave, look, I think you're confused," I tried to push my voice through again but it didn't work. I was immediately smudged out.

Dave sighed in deeply to prepare for another wave of rage. "I need to get rid of North Wind, and those penguins, once and for all. They've been nothing but pests that need to be rid of this world."

"You're joking, right?" I laughed lightly then, but a wave of my own anger started to come out. I wanted to be the calm one in this situation, but he was going too far. "You're an idiot." I sneered.

"So, I'm the idiot? Do you have any idea how much I've done for this? Do you know how it feels to be cast aside, and left to _rot_ _?_ I wouldn't expect you to understand. You know nothing."

"This has nothing to do with the stupid ass penguins! I know when something is wrong, and this is it!"

"It's like I've said before…" Dave growled, taking all his tentacles, and at their tips bundled them into fists as he quaked with rage. "I should have known. I should have known _better_ _!_ " He laughed sarcastically, breaking his sentence briefly, but it returned harder once the chuckle left his throat. " _Some creatures are born to get all the love…_ "

"THAT'S A LIE!"

" _THE REST OF US GET NOTHING_ _!_ "

"I love you!"

"I DON'T CARE—"

Like a car breaking in a desperate attempt to avoid a collision but to no avail, my heart smashed into my rib cage. I felt air deprived and deflated, as if all the life in me had been sucked out in a quick vacuum. Like a flood gate had been cracked I felt my eyes fill up with tears, my face turning red as I attempted with every fiber of my being to hold it all back.

But him… his anger melted as his scowl dropped. It was like he knew what he said was wrong. He was briefly stuck, looking as if he wanted to say something. He knew exactly what I said, but I wished then that I didn't say anything.

" _Fine_ _._ " I let that word slide through my teeth and lips elegantly, despite the horror I was feeling inside. "You don't care. That's fine."

"Kailey… I…"

"Don't say another word!" I screamed. After my eruption I settled myself back down for the sake of not breaking right in front of him, but even that wasn't enough. At any second I felt as if my mask of confidence would crack, revealing my real face. I turned my back to him and wrapped my arms around myself, then started walking away. "I know when I'm not wanted anymore."

It was deathly quiet in that room after that. The clicks of my footsteps as I walked away created a drawled out echo, this being the only sound that rang through the submarine. At the corners of my eyes I could see the henchmen backing away from me to let me pass, but not even they dared to speak to me.

I didn't even think about where I was going. I didn't even know _how_ to get home. I just kept pacing forward, and didn't look back.

Once again, I was going to face another long dark.

_Alone._


	24. Stranger On the Ground

**Dave**

Her face and the way she talked. The way she walked, the way she moved. Her smile, her laugh. Everything about her was gone. Her presence here was _gone_.

All my life I have felt alone. But now, after what happened, I was even more alone than I had ever been. It was so brief, that company, and yet it left a barren feeling in my chest. There was nothing left anymore.

Although I wasn't _exactly_ left by myself.

The worst part about her absence was what she had left behind. Her expression—how she tried to hold everything back, that scared and frightened look in her eyes— had left an imprint on my mind. It was all I could think about. It was all I could dream about.

My focus was completely gone. As much as I tried to tell myself that everything would be all right, and this needed to happen for the sake of my revenge, it still didn't work. Everything I tried to tell myself was a lie, and it came spinning back at me to hit me right in the face.

"She should have known better. She should have never talked to the penguins!" I yelled out loud again, attempting to place blame elsewhere. And yet… I felt horrible afterward.

There were moments I tried returning my attention back to the situation at hand. My Medusa Serum was all set up, and prepared to be transported. The submarine was ready to go, and so were my henchmen. My revenge was going to be set in stone, and I'd finally get what I wanted. Soon, the penguins would become hideous monsters that mankind would despise, and afterwards, I'd be able to focus on combating North Wind, and bring their organization to an ultimate end.

But as I moved along with this progress, I would suddenly stall. I mentally had flashbacks of the events leading up to this, and with those memories, the feelings I had when they were being made.

_Dave, you can't do that! You can't! Let me go instead!_

Her voice seemed to intermingle with my thoughts as I recalled her fight with North Wind. I don't think for a second I looked away from those camera feeds the other day. Even though she piloted Tetradnaught so fluently, as if she had done so hundreds of times, I still felt as if something was wrong. I had fought North Wind before, so I knew exactly how set on completing a mission they were, particularly the wolf.

In their fight at the time, that remained true. North Wind didn't back down at first—they were going to bring down Kailey with them if they had too, and that could be seen when one of their machines went down and they didn't retreat right away.

I had faith in Kailey, but at the same time I felt as if I was literally allowing her to walk into her own pyre. The instant Tetradnaught's legs collapsed and the following explosion consumed the mech was the moment I faced true fear. I could have cared less if that was me in the mech, but knowing it was her? It was torture watching that explosion and erupting fire. I couldn't just stand there and do nothing, and yet there was nothing I really could do alone.

I remember running outside, finding North Wind gone, but seeing the great machine I had witnessed being put together crumbling, and the head of the mech burning like wood in a fire. I would have thrown myself at that fire if I could if it meant saving her, but I remember two men grabbing me and starting to pull me back. One was a police officer, and another was a fireman. Behind them three fire trucks rolled up, and as quickly as they could, the humans started dousing the flames.

After that, my memory seemed to be a blur. All I recalled was that once enough of the flames had been extinguished, I broke from the humans holding me back and rushed up to the hatch to pull it open. The air was musty and hot, and ash was everywhere. I remember reaching inside the cockpit and pulling her motionless body out.

I watched the humans take her away in an ambulance. But little did I know I would watch her walk away, and leave me forever.

And both times, _it was all my fault_.

I was so furious at North Wind. I hated them with every fiber of my being. My hatred for them had rose significantly for what they had done, perhaps even matching my hatred of the penguins themselves. I had wanted nothing but to see them suffer for what they had caused me. The penguins for my loneliness, and North Wind for their arrogance. For a while, after the fight Kailey endured, they were the sole cause of my misery.

And yet now, as I pondered, I was starting to wonder… maybe I was the cause of everything wrong in my life. Not because the humans moved on to love cute, adorable penguins, but because when one human did come to me instead, looking over all the rest and chose to love _me_ , I pushed her away. She said she loved me, and I failed her. I _hurt_ her. And because of that, I was alone again. I was a stranger.

. . . . . . .

Hours? Days? They were the same thing. There was no such thing as time; there was only action. I don't recall how much time went by, but we soon arrived at my personal island, where I would apply my Medusa Serum to the machine that would carry out my new plans. My henchmen were just beginning to prepare the serum, and bring it out to the laboratories. Things were going so perfectly, in terms of my revenge.

"Jeff, bridge is open and prepared to receive the serum, yes?" I asked aloud. My henchman proceeded to nod and speak to me, although his response went right over my head. I couldn't help but wonder… if Kailey would have thought whatever I had said was funny. She always mentioned I made puns unconsciously. I never even learned why…

I watched as Jeff, along with a large group of my henchmen, started to transport the serum out of the submarine then. Even as they left everyone was so busy. My henchmen walked passed me to and fro and around the submarine, set on getting the job I had set for them done, and done soon. There was no time to waste, really. Time was precious, and the sooner we got this accomplished, the faster we could track down North Wind.

Time… was precious. And it was time I was spending without _her_.

"Argh!" I huffed out loud and placed two arms onto my face to attempt and suppress these feelings. I hated this. I felt terrible. But deep down I knew I deserved it.

Little Penny and her group consisting of Jacob, RJ, and Kenny, approached me, along with Edgar; even he somehow reminded me of Kailey. She was with him all the time so of course I'd be reminded of her.

"What are you looking at—get back to work!" I commanded loudly, attempting to avoid letting them know how I was feeling, although I ended up blurting out to them some portion of these feelings anyway. "What do you think I should do!? Nothing is going to change the fact that she's gone!" I cried.

All the henchmen in the room, at that moment, stopped in their tracks. Their eyes settled on me, in that dreadful silence like before. _Even the silence reminded me of her_ _._

"EVERYTHING I'VE EVER WORKED FOR ISN'T THE SAME ANYMORE!" I yelled again. I felt like I was going insane. There was nothing I could do whatsoever that would get this off my mind. I was being terrorized by my own doings. I don't think I could ever forgive myself.

Then, something caught my eye. In one of Jacob's arms, was _Kailey's cell phone_. He was looking up at me, holding himself up in a sort of silent suggestion. Based on how Jacob, Penny, and their group was looking at me, it seemed this was planned. I knew they were only trying to help, but at the time it only made me feel worse.

"So you're saying I should call her and apologize?" I scoffed. “You honestly think she'd forgive me after _that_?!"

" _MRAWWWRRRRR!_ "

A dreadful cry erupted throughout the submarine, causing everyone to exchange their glances to face whatever was coming our way. We could hear the quick pace of something coming down one of the hallways, and when it did finally reach our area, I was yet again forced to face something else that reminded me of Kailey.

It was the cat. The monster cat I gave her a long time ago to make her forgive me.

I didn't move whatsoever. It was as if I was frozen solid, watching as the cat looked around frantically and pelted out of the opening of the submarine, escaping. The thought of why it was acting up didn't even cross my consciousness. My mind was all over the place anyway, so of course I didn't think anything of it.

 _BOOM!_ Somewhere in the submarine a loud explosion boomed, shaking the room as its echo spread. I remember the henchmen began to panic then, but I was still frozen, looking at the exit the cat had run out of, and then after a few moments, glanced down towards Jacob, and Kailey's light blue phone.

Unexpectedly another explosion went off, although this time it was directly at the exit I had been staring at. This shook me in regards to the suddenness of the second explosion, but overall I kept still, staring wide eyed at the smoke as it started to settle. The moment of ominous silence after the explosion didn't last long, when a tiger and a brown bear jumped though the new and large opening. Following them was the wolf and the polar bear.

It was North Wind… and they brought backup.

"There he is!" the wolf shouted, pointing one of his claws at me. It was only at that moment that I broke from my frozen state and started scurrying. Penny and her group immediately began sticking behind me as I made pace deeper into the submarine to try and escape. That very first explosion, however, still kept me on guard. North Wind might have sent way more backup than I was initially anticipating. I was starting to realize that my submarine had to be surrounded.

I was quiet for a long time as I rushed through the hallways, with only the sound of my breathing reminding me that I was still alive. I was trying—thinking desperately for an escape plan, but I ended up falling to a dead end. Based on my calculations that we were indeed surrounded, and there could be dozens, perhaps hundreds of North Wind agents around, waiting and watching for me to break from the submarine and attempt to make a run for it, I realized that I would instantly be caught.

Through my oncoming panic I was then bombarded with things I hadn't done… my revenge, of course, but there was something more important than that.

"Kailey will never know what happened to me," I muttered out loud once I stopped running. I was facing a dead end wall, although an air duct remained in front of me, possibly allowing for an escape. Regardless of the air duct, thinking again of how North Wind was among us, and they were targeting me for that matter, I was running out of options. And now I had the dreadful thought in my head that I would never see Kailey again, and she would go the rest of her life… _not knowing_.

"Jacob, give me the phone!" I gasped desperately. I didn't waste time as I took hold of her phone and placed it up to my ear. However, after a moment of realizing I was listening to nothing but silence, I knew I had no idea how to work this thing.

"Penny—somebody call her, please!" I pleaded. Penny shook her head upon taking the phone from me. She mentioned something about there being no bars… whatever that meant. I guess that meant the phone had no signal way out here on my island.

"Do something!" I cried again. Despite panic and dread rushing through me, I tried thinking of an idea. I didn't know much about human cell phones, but I did know you could record yourself…

"Penny, set the phone to video record me, now!" I commanded.

I watched her as she dialed something into the phone, navigating the controls and then started the recording. I didn't waste time though as I took it from her and faced the camera towards me.

"Kailey…" I started, softly, despite how all my hearts were racing and I knew inevitably North Wind would come around the corner and find me soon. "I know… what I did was wrong. I know I hurt you, and I am so, so sorry. Nothing I can say, or ever will say, will be enough to take back what I did. I wasn't thinking, and what I said isn't true."

 _BAM_ _!_ The sound of metal from the side walls of my submarine blasted somewhere down the hallways. North Wind was punching as many holes in it as they could, and it also meant more North Wind agents were flowing inside. I could hear the hollers of my henchmen as they were attempting to fight them off.

I couldn't waste time though… not now. So I continued to speak.

"I don't know what to say…" I started, although I shook my head and closed my eyes briefly, taking a quick moment to regain my composure as I sucked back what felt like burning acidic tears that began to well up into my eyes. After I breathed out, I resumed. "I'll say it anyway… I might not ever see you again. I'll be gone, and I'm scared that you might not ever know."

Despite my efforts to get a hold of myself and speak, I suddenly choked with a sob. It was so uncontrollable and strange to me that it took me from my fear and tossed me into an emotion of despair and longing.

"I'm just trying to think of the right words to say… where do I begin? Where do I end?" I paused again as I took in a breath. I knew I was wasting time doing this, so I had to act. I had to push my feelings out, and do it fast. I had to get rid of the filter and simply let my mouth move. "Kailey, the day I found you was the day my life changed forever. Before all I could think about was my revenge, but now… you're all I can think about. Nobody in my entire life has shown me genuine kindness and patience as you have done. And I still can't believe that, despite all I have put you through, you still somehow managed to _love me_."

"Check down the hallway!" I heard the wolf's voice command again. I suddenly heard a handful of footsteps flow into the hallways, these sounds getting closer and closer by the minute. Despite this, I still kept my eyes glued to the phone, pretending that even right then that Kailey was somehow listening to me.

"I've come to realize that the only person I need to love me is you. Nothing else matters. Because… _I love you, too_ _._ "

Reluctantly, I pressed the red button on the phone's screen to stop the recording, and placed it back into Jacob's arms. I stared at all five of them for a moment, and then started giving them commands.

"Go! See that air duct? Get out of here, now! There is a room towards the other side of the laboratories on the island that has an aircraft you can take. I need you to return Kailey's phone, and make sure she sees my message. Please! It's all I can do!"

The henchmen all nodded, confidently, as they did as I told them and rushed through the air duct, disappearing and leaving me with the chaos that would within seconds unfold onto me. The paces of the agents were extremely loud now, so at any moment I knew they would come around the corner. In those brief moments, I thought hard of what I had just done. How long would it take them to reach her? Would she even look at the message? What would she even think?

It was out of my grasp now. I had to let it go, and put faith at least in my henchmen that the message would be delivered.

"There he is!" I heard one of the agents cry. I looked up to see the wolf, and polar bear, along with a large group of agents behind them. I was cornered, and risking going through the vent would place the henchmen I just sent for being caught too. So I stood there, and placed my arms in the air.

"David! We finally have you! You are under arrest, not only for the kidnapping of pegwings, and destroying our main base, but denying arrest back in New York." The wolf paused and eyed me, giving off an irritating smirk that indicated he just now realized he had won. It was so pestering, that look of his, that I cringed irritably, but I still kept my arms in the air and remained obedient. "I'm surprised to see your human assistant is no longer here," the wolf continued. "I'm assuming she finally decided to leave you, as I had hoped. Humans have no business among us."

"Yeah, whatever…" I stated as rudely as I could, yet despite how outwardly I managed to look confident before them, what he said sent needles into my hearts. "I surrender."

. . . . . . .

They had another base. _Of course they had another base_. A top notch organization like North Wind would obviously have somewhere else to go. Although, this 'base' wasn't quite like their other one. This one was severely outdated and simple. The security wasn't as elaborate, and the typical and fancy layout of their main base was exchanged for simple metal and slightly rusted walls. Although I wasn't about to take advantage of these sightings and assume this older, backup base would be an easy escape. Especially since they put me in my _prison_.

My prison was a tank. It reminded me a lot of the ridiculously small tank I was placed in those many years ago during my stay at the Brazil Zoo. Only this time it wasn't attached to the same systems as the toilets.

I was left alone for some time in this tank—well, not really alone, but ignored. There were some North Wind agents on the outside of my tank, guarding and watching me, although they wouldn't dare speak to me. They constantly sent me glares, which instead of making me nervous made me angry. I was literally in a position that I loathed: surrounded by my enemies. Of course I was angry.

"So, Dick has finally been arrested, huh? Took you long enough!" I heard Skipper's voice coming from somewhere outside the large mechanical doors to the left of the room. What anger I had already rose significantly. North Wind was literally going to bring the penguins in here? They were going to shove them in my face?

"Yes, yes… David has been restrained," the wolf responded casually. Right then, the large doors parted, creating a rusted sort of mechanical sound as they did so. The wolf and Corporal walked in at that moment, along with Skipper, Rico, Kowalski, and Private. Their presence caused the guards that were in the room to leave, although I was starting to like the idea of being glared at by strangers than see the faces of my sworn enemies grin sarcastically at me.

"Would you look at that," Kowalski commented, "I knew octopi were able to fit in small spaces but this is terrific. Is this his permanent prison cell?"

"For the time, yes," the wolf responded.

"Great!" Skipper placed his flippers together, looking up at me with the same expression as the others: stuck-up victory. "Although I'm sure we would have found a way to escape Darlene's submarine ourselves," Skipper added then.

"Oh, is that so?" the wolf asked scathingly. "It has been a few good months, you know. I was afraid if we would have given you any more time to try and escape yourselves you would be victims to Dave's Medusa Serum by now."

"Another day or two and we would've been outta there!" Skipper reinforced. "But never mind that now. We're out, the other penguins are back where they belong, and Dale here is behind bars. Well, behind glass, at least."

"What happened to the human girl?" Private wondered. In contrast to the others, he seemed to be more worried than he was indulging in this supposed victory of theirs. "Was she arrested, too?"

"I'm afraid not," the wolf started to explain. “You see, since she is human we aren't obligated to place her under arrest. Our organization will be keeping surveillance on her instead."

"That's a shame, I was hoping Kendrick would have gotten hers as well," Skipper sighed.

The mechanical doors opened once again, this time, Eva and Short Fuse walking into the room. Short Fuse had a cone around his neck, along with a bandage wrapped on his head. Eva's feathers looked a bit fluffed up, as if she had just been showered and air dried, along with a cast on one of her legs, with a crutch in her wing.

Kailey may not have killed them, but she sure did the job in giving them a good butt-kicking.

"Eva!" Kowalski gasped. I watched as he quickly rushed over to her, although stopped his pace just enough as he got closer, so when he wrapped his flippers around her in a hug he didn't risk hurting her. After their embrace, Eva pushed him away, although quickly took the opportunity to… _kiss him_ _?_

"Ugh, get lost, love birds," I said sarcastically.

"You're just sour because you couldn't smooch Kyle," Skipper commented outright to take up for Kowalski, who proceeded to ignore me to peck beaks with Eva. "And don't go denying it either. I heard your fight the other night, and you talking under your breath when you passed by our cage area. You _really_ didn't take that well, did you?"

"Nhyaaa!" Rico added. His noise was completely indecipherable to me, but Skipper laughed the moment he heard him grunt. "Yeah, you said it!" Skipper responded through his laughs.

I suddenly sat up, as much as I could in my small tank at least, and pounded two arms against the glass. I felt my teeth grind together as a strained scowl consumed my face, although I didn't give any effort to hide it. I wanted them to know just how angry I was.

"Screw off!" I yelled. My decision of words mimicked—well, Kailey's. I felt a warm wave come over my chest briefly the second I thought about her, before my anger of the current situation resumed. Everyone seemed to stop with their sarcasm and annoyingly proud smirks when I said that. They were really surprised.

"Remind me to install a force field around his existing tank just in case…" the wolf muttered over towards Corporal. "Now then, I hope you make yourself comfortable, David. You're going to be in that tank for a very long time. Once our main base is rebuilt—whenever that will be—we will transport you to your permanent area in our prison rooms. We will make sure you will never see the light of day again." He sneered afterwards and turned around. "Corporal, Eva, Short Fuse, would you?"

Eva pulled away from Kowalski then, and the other North Wind agents obeyed the command of their leader and left the room. The penguins, however, frowned bitterly at me, before they followed them out. Private, on the other hand, remained standing there briefly, staring at me with a saddened gaze. It was only when he heard the others slipping out of the room and into the hallway, did he turn away, rather reluctantly, and disappeared once the metal doors clamped shut behind him.

Again, it was quiet with everyone being gone. The small tank made this even more unbearable as I kept all my arms bundled around myself in attempts to give myself room to shift around.

I was going to be put away. For good. I didn't know what to think. As a matter of fact, I didn't know because I was thinking of everything at the same time.

I was a stranger. _Forgotten, unwanted._

_Alone._


	25. Rescue Mission

_Two weeks._

Two whole weeks had gone by, and yet I still felt as if the wound was fresh. My face was numb from my constant and daily sobs, and my body as a whole felt cold. The hours I managed not to cry were when I ventured out into the living room. Sometimes Leah would be there, but I wouldn't talk to her about what happened. If anything I just told her Octo Corp might go under after the recent 'terrorist' attacks, so she only assumed I was going to be out of a job, and that's it.

As usual, Leah tried helping me along in her own way about how I should start looking into other work opportunities. She had no idea that this wasn't the problem. She had no clue what I was really feeling.

I could care less about looking for a job. I didn't even care if I sat on the couch forever and died. I ate only because I had to, and showered because that was the only thing that made me feel somewhat better. Overall, I _hated_ this place. It was only a means to have a roof over my head, and yet, every passing day I was mentally preparing to give it all up and just move back in with my parents. I couldn't bear to stay here anymore because it wasn't _home_.

It was late at night, and once again Leah was out visiting family. She was supposedly going to show up sometime after midnight, since the drive from her family living in Louisiana to Houston was a long one. But honestly, it wouldn't have made a difference if she was here or not. I was prepared to leave the next morning anyway back to my parents place.

As I laid on the couch, keeping a small package of Belvita biscuits next to me and a glass of water just in case my stomach severely yearned for food, I found my eyes drifting across the room. I thought about turning on the TV, but I didn't care for the noise at that time. It was better to lay in silence.

My attention turned from looking at small specks on the ceiling to the kitchen, and then to the window. Since I had been gone, the window had been repaired and made new. It was like nothing had happened.

I was here in the same place once again, and it was like it _never happened._ It was like I never found that snow globe at that airport, and I had never gone to New York for that job interview. I was back at the beginning, and everything I had gone through was nothing but a bad dream.

"It was all a bad dream…" I tried to reinforce, although as I kept staring at the window I broke uncontrollably into sobs. Nothing I said made it any different. As much as I tried to tell myself it didn't happen, _it did._

I sat there and cried for a really long time, sometimes straining my arms and hands as if trying to tense up my muscles could somehow take me out of the moment and these dreadful feelings. Through my cries, however, I kept anticipating Leah to walk through the door at any moment. I was prepared to dart to my room if need be so she wouldn't see me, and then come back out later and onto the couch once she went to sleep.

"I'll leave tomorrow…" I said through my weeping. "I'll go home tomorrow, and won't come back here. I can't take this anymore."

I sat up in an uncontrollable spur of the moment and dashed into my bedroom. Quickly, as if I was preparing for an evacuation, I pulled my suitcase from under my bed and started throwing clothes in. Everything. All that I could carry I threw into the suitcase. I was moving out, and nobody could change my mind. Not Leah, not Dad—not anybody.

As my hands grabbed hold of clothing and tossed them unfolded and all into the suitcase, I suddenly heard a knock at the door. I found myself tensing up, chills consuming my skin as I anticipated Leah to begin unlocking the door and let herself in.

Hopefully she wouldn't decide to come checking on me in my room and see what I was doing. She would probably try and lecture me that I shouldn't give up on finding work or some shit, and to be honest, it pissed me off just thinking about that. Screw work. Screw 'jumping back onto the horse'. If I wanted a break, I was going to take it. I wasn't obligated to do a damn thing. I've tried hard my entire life for everything I've worked for. Every day it was something else to worry about, whether it was college, my nighttime illness, freaking _Dave_ or whatever the hell kind of problems I had constantly bombarding me. I had every right to leave when I wanted to.

As I dug through my clothes I found myself stalling once something shiny caught my eye. Buried in my lower drawer was the ring. The one Dave had given me.

I didn't want to say I completely forgot about it, since that was impossible, honestly. I remember when I first got back two weeks ago I had hid it from myself so it would be easier to shield myself from its memories. Looking at it made me feel terrible, and yet I didn't have the heart to throw it away.

The door knocked again, more loudly than before. Instead of tensing up that time, I realized that it had to be someone else. Leah had keys, so she would be inside by now. This was a visitor… but a visitor knocking minutes until midnight?

I was a little nervous to be honest. I was all alone, eyes watered and face red from crying, with my clothes scattered everywhere as if a freaking gargoyle had ravaged my room. I looked nor felt like I was in no position to deal with a freaking home intruder.

I read before somewhere online that not answering the door sent a signal to the intruder that nobody was home, and they could just break in if they wanted to. However, at the same time, just outright answering the door for some stranger would give them free leverage to push their way in and take advantage of everything. _I was freaking scared, holy shit!_

I grabbed the closest thing to me that I could whack the shit out of someone with: my freaking 100 dollar custom lightsaber. It had been made with a strong blade specifically built for actual sparring, so I figured it could handle a few hard blows into the head and nuts of some asshole intruder. For effect, and to make me feel better as I prepared to venture into the dark hallway, I flicked the light switch on the lightsaber, igniting a purple hue like Mace Windu's blade, and prepared myself to face whoever was outside.

_CRASH!_

I jumped and screamed out loud when I heard that, nearly dropping my lightsaber, but managed to gather myself seconds after. It took me a few moments for my brain to figure out what had just happened, but when I did, I proceeded to start freaking out.

_Somebody had freaking broke into my damn house._

I didn't have a cell phone anymore, so the only way I could call the police was with the house phone. I needed to either make a dash for it and call for help or get out of the house entirely, but I needed to see who exactly had broken in first. I figured if it was a limp ass little dude I could kick his ass enough and fend for myself. If it was a big intimidating dude… well, that's different. I'd need to get out of there in that case.

I quickly made the decision to check and see where the crash had come from, and opened my door and pelted down the hall. Once I came into the kitchen area, I heard soft chatter. It was slightly distorted, making it difficult to tell how many individuals had actually come in. Was it just two? Three? I was trying to balance the odds of me fighting off more than one person, and the odds of winning were slim.

I peeked around the corner. Slowly.

"What are you doing here!?" I gasped upon seeing who it was. It was only at that moment that I fully revealed myself from around the corner, although still keeping my lightsaber in my grasp tightly, since my body hadn't quite transitioned from danger mode to normal mode yet.

Standing in my kitchen, and having shattered and came into the same window as the henchmen before, was Penny, Kenny, Jacob, RJ, and Edgar. They all looked tired, but somehow alert and ready to move.

Before I could ask another question, RJ started gurgling something at me quickly, losing breath as he explained. Since he was gobbling so quickly he had to stop and take a deep breath and then resume. Upon the others noticing that I wasn't understanding a damned thing he was saying, Jacob proceeded to whack RJ upside the head, and lifted my phone upward and outward for me to take.

"What's this?" I asked. My guard finally let down once I saw my cell phone had been returned to me. I flicked the light on the lightsaber off and set it on the table, taking the phone from Jacob once my hands were free. It was only once I got a hold of it and was able to look at the screen myself was when I noticed a video had recently been recorded.

All of the henchmen looked up at me with big, wide eyes that were filled with anticipation. It was due to this look that I found my calm state shifting to irritability once again, and at the same time, that same sadness from before coming over me in quick waves that would strike me at random moments.

"If you think that some sappy ass video is going to make me forgive him—" I started, although I was cut off once they all tried gobbling at once, their tentacles lifting upward to add to their tone of urgency.

As much as I dreaded the thought of seeing Dave on the video, I took the signal that these guys hadn't come all the way here for nothing. Hesitantly, I looked away from them and down at my phone screen, ultimately clicking the video file that was left open for me to see.

The video started playing… and without delay, I felt what frigid feelings I had retained throughout my body melt away.

I heard the explosions in the background, and the urgency in Dave's message. I could feel the sincerity in his voice and within his apology. I could practically relate to the hesitation in his sentences. _But… that one word. That one word that changed everything…_

" _He loves me…_?" I muttered as I felt tears flooding into my eyes, causing distortion in my vision once the video had ended. My heart fluttered, and I'm sure for a moment I was breathless. After a few seconds of being engulfed with emotion I started smiling. "HE LOVES ME!" I cried giddily.

But as much as I wanted to marvel in this moment, I understood that something was very, very wrong. Dave was in danger.

"North Wind! It was them, wasn't it?" I asked loudly.

Edgar took the opportunity and grabbed a notebook and pencil sitting on my counter, and started scribbling in it. The other henchmen leaned over to get a look at what he was writing, but before they managed to read it in entirety, Edgar shoved the notebook forward to give to me, which I snatched out of concern.

I read what was written down as fast as I could. Edgar had confirmed my suspicion… Dave had been arrested by North Wind.

"What are we going to do!?" I gasped. My mind buzzed around, trying to think of what to do, if anything, in order to help him. "Where did they even go?"

Edgar took the notepad from me and wrote more stuff down. He turned it my way when he was done.

"You guys know the location?" Again, the workings of these guys never ceased to amaze me. "Well, how did you all get here? How are we going to get _there_ _?_ "

Penny took my hand, and along with everyone else, escorted me to the front of my house. I looked out the front window, and sitting parked in the middle of the freaking street was one of Dave's aircraft.

I felt like facepalming myself, but at the same time seeing a damned plane in the middle of the road was the best thing I had laid eyes on in a long time. "What are we waiting for?" I cried next. "We need to save him!"

I think my legs had a mind of their own, because the next thing I knew I was running back into my room and beginning to get ready. Once I slipped on a pair of agile pants, a pair of tennis shoes, and a free moving top, I was prepared to spin back out of the room and meet with the others to get the ball rolling. However, I stopped momentarily as the ring in my drawer caught my eye…

This time, when I looked at it, those feelings of despair did not return. Because now I _knew_ _._

I reached into the drawer and plucked the ring from its place, and put it back onto my finger. A smile seemed to consume my expression despite that I was about to head to a rescue mission in enemy territory. Literally nothing right now could stop me from being happy. I was going to enjoy this.

" _Hell yeah…_ " I muttered to myself once the ring was on my finger. I felt empowered, unstoppable even! "North Wind, here I come… _hide yo kids, and hide yo wives_ _…_ " I don't know why I said that but whatever. People say and do crazy things… when they're in love.

_Oh my God, Kailey, stawwwp; that's sappy as hell!_

I was prepared to dart back into the hallway and join the henchmen when something entirely unexpected happened.

I heard the front door creak open.

"Kailey, are you home? Sorry, I'm home so late, I just—AHHHHHHHHH!" Leah's voice yelled bloody murder the second she must have seen the henchmen.

"I can explain!" I yelled as I spun around and dived out of my room, meeting Leah and the henchmen at the front door. Leah was backed up hard against the wall as if she was about to backwards climb the damn thing like Spiderman. "Leah, please!" I cried again.

"WHY ARE THERE OCTOPUSES IN HERE?!" Leah hollered again. I watched as the ever silent Kenny ran off into the kitchen, leaving the others to deal with my cousin. "YOU—YOU WEREN'T KIDDING!"

"About what?"

"ABOUT SEEING OCTOPUSES THAT NIGHT!"

"Seeing is believing I guess." I rolled my eyes. "But look, you can't tell anybody about this!"

"WHY!?"

Out of nowhere, Kenny returned with a damp cloth, and _freaking attacked Leah._ He put the cloth over her face and held her down, and despite her struggles she slowly but surely blacked out. I watched as Kenny then started to drag Leah to the couch. I, on the other hand, was wide-eyed amongst a bunch of octopus henchmen who acted like they did that a thousand times.

"Did you just _chloroform_ my cousin?" I asked after a good thirty seconds of watching RJ prop her onto the couch. I had no idea if it was chloroform or whatever, but jeez!

Kenny gobbled at me, proudly, speaking aloud to me the first time I think… ever? I guess he was the silent brooding type?

I didn't answer though. Kenny had taken care of the problem, so who am I to complain? I guess she could think it was all a dream, since she'll wake up on the couch. Hopefully that'll be enough for her to keep her mouth shut though. Lord knows she couldn't handle the same amount of idiocy that I've been through.

I turned from staring at my cousin and then back to the henchmen. I placed a fist into my palm, attempting to transition my emotions once more to the rescue mission at hand. "All right ladies, listen up," I started to command. "It's make your mamma's proud time! We're heading out!"

. . . . . . .

We landed in an open field beneath a cloudless, darkened night sky. I was starting to wonder why on earth the henchmen would have taken us out in the middle of nowhere in the first place, but of course I had to take into consideration that North Wind's 'new' location was probably hidden just out of sight. I was looking at giant rocks, trees—anything that I could possibly think of that would be another weird ass entrance into their secret base. Although, before I could scan around long enough to even decide on a possible entryway, the henchmen gurgled at each other once they were all set and turned to me. Their glances, however, seemed to glide right over to the only thing in this field that _wasn't_ natural.

There was a shack. A regular ol' shack, here and out in the middle of a damned field.

"Seriously?" I asked, my eyes narrowing immediately after my question escaped me. I couldn't possibly imagine North Wind's back up base being this obvious. "A shack? They built a base in a flipping iceberg but this one is just… normal?"

I was talking ahead of myself though. Despite how I believed this was going to be a straight shot deal, I had to remind myself to stay on my toes. This base didn't look complex—it was a shack after all—but who knows what was inside.

I let the henchmen do most of the work at that point. Following them towards the shack, I watched them open the rusty metal doors. I kept anticipating for some weird thing to happen in terms of security, but nothing happened. I assumed that this was some sort of 'back entrance' that wasn't as heavily guarded, although the easiness of it all was pretty suspicious.

Once inside, I further took in exactly how plain this place was. The shack was large, seemingly built to house tractors or large vehicles, however, it was empty. What small amounts of moonbeams that managed to filter through the small rusty windows created a sort of mist, revealing just how filthy and rather desolate it was.

"Okay, so how are we supposed to get inside?" I asked aloud. My question didn't need a response though. It was only until Edgar moved forward from the group and pulled on a cupboard to the side, revealing a set of keyboard-like controls, that I understood exactly how competent these guys were. _I mean, obviously they were competent, they built freaking robots._

Once Edgar placed in a series of commands into this keyboard the entire shack shook, tearing my attention from Edgar and to the center of the floor. A large circular formation drew on the ground, then with a quick thunk, fell down to reveal a steep and dark staircase.

"Oh." I felt so stupid amongst the henchmen. "Would you look at that? A secret staircase."

The henchmen didn't waste any time proceeding onward. We started down the dark staircase, leaving behind the shack above to descend into hell.

I'm kidding. But based on how irritated I was at North Wind anyway it was practically the same thing.

Once the staircase came to an end… well, that was when the fun began. And when I say 'fun', I'm being sarcastic. Upon opening a set of doors at the bottom of this staircase, we were introduced to what this actual underground base really looked like. It might not have been as sophisticated as the iceberg one, but it was still massive. Most, if not all the walls were white, although they had smudges of red from rust along the corners and some dirt stains as well. The rails and doors were rusted and dusty too, this in entirety reminding me of an abandoned laboratory, like, I don't know… freaking _Portal 2_ or something.

We were looking outward to a main shuttlebay. Off a balcony and a good ways below was what looked to be a landing/takeoff port. There was a singular shuttle down there—one much like Classified's shuttle, although different solely due to being a single pilot ship.

"Okay… we need to get this done. Find Dave, and get the hell out of here," I whispered.

The henchmen all nodded in agreement and quickly yet quietly we started down the hallway. At first I thought it was strange how I wasn't seeing any North Wind agents around. It seemed too quiet in here.

We managed to make it all the way down the singular long hallway trailing alongside the landing port when this easy-peasy stuff switched. A door somewhere along the hallway opened up, and with it the sound of voices followed instantly afterward.

"Oh, Kowalski… I don't know vhat to say…" It was freaking Eva. She sounded preoccupied, thankfully. However, we needed to hide, and quickly.

In the blink of an eye, all five of the henchmen changed color to match the walls and pressed themselves up against the metal to disappear. On the other hand, I was left out on the open and had no idea where the hell to hide. I could hear Eva and what sounded like Kowalski start to exit the doorway they had just opened. If I didn't find a place to hide fast I'd be caught, and Lord knows I didn't want to fight a freaking owl and penguin that could probably hurt me pretty badly.

"No, I mean it," I heard Kowalski respond. "I'd do anything for you, baby. Anything."

I started to panic as my eyes scanned around the hallway for a place to hide. Desperately, I turned my hopes to a large fern that was growing out of the wall, and jumped behind it. Luckily it was bushy enough to hide me for the most part, and at the same time it allowed me to peer through its branches to see what was going on.

I had jumped behind the plant just in time when Kowalski and Eva started walking by. They stopped right in front of me and the fern, however, and turned to each other.

"Anything?" Eva asked then after a pause. She fluttered her overly large eyelashes at Kowalski, who seemed to turn red all over.

"Uhhh…" He was awkwardly staring at her, beak open and everything. I don't know why, but right then I started to feel super uncomfortable. I'm pretty sure this was the first time I ever saw a penguin making goo-goo eyes at an owl. I know—I should be used to this by now. After all I've seen a freaking giraffe and a hippo together, so whatever. But still.

Before Kowalski could actually respond, Eva, despite being in crutches and having a cast on one of her legs, grabbed Kowalski and dunked him, giving him a big kiss. How exactly she was kissing him when they had beaks was beyond me. I could _try_ and describe it but it'd be too hard.

They did this for a super long time. Like, an unnecessarily long time. I was getting annoyed and anxious, because I was still stuck behind a damned plant being forced to watch Kowalski kiss Eva. It was so ridiculous like, cut the hell out!

I heard a set of doors down the same direction open. This time a different North Wind agent revealed himself. The leopard stopped momentarily once the kissing war caught his attention and stared stoically until they stopped. Eva didn't seem fazed whatsoever by being caught, but Kowalski turned red again and turned his attention behind him in attempts to avoid owning up in front of the other agent.

"Oh wow, you haven't shown me the base's nucular reactor!" Kowalski exhaled nervously. “Eva, will you show me?"

"Sure," Eva responded flatly, like she normally would, and started walking Kowalski down the hall and exited another door. The leopard did the same once they left, finally leaving the henchmen and I room to head out.

"Good lord," I huffed once I stepped out from behind the plant. "Glad they didn't see me, but sheesh!" I turned to the henchmen, attempting to shake off what I had just watched, and returned my focus back to the task. "Let's get going. The agents came from that doorway, so that's probably the direction they are keeping Dave."

I stopped talking to think quickly for the sake of the situation we were in. There were no air ducts or anything like that as of now that could be used for travel. We'd have to do this carefully if we didn't want to get caught.

Penny walked up to my side, and along with her we lead the group ahead into the door the leopard had come out of. As I thought, this seemed to be the general right direction; I could tell based on how this hallway seemed a little more up kept, and seemed to have been used more recently due to the lack of cobwebs and swept floors. For a while I thought it would be free flowing from this point; at least until we reached another door, but alas.

When I thought this rather nightmarish situation couldn't get any worse, Corporal opened the door on the opposite end of the hallway. _We were freaking blocked by a polar bear._

Helplessly, I let out a quick scream. Corporal was shaken due to our presence for a second, but he swiftly got on guard and started charging at us. I thought I was about to be run over by him and detained before all the henchmen, working together, grabbed a hold of me and jumped onto the ceiling. I watched from below as Corporal stopped in his tracks, stunned, and looked up at us as we started rushing over him. Before we got out of the other end of the hallway, he briefly swiped a claw up at us in attempts to catch us, although this act missed me and the other five henchmen, thankfully.

Once we went out the other door, we jumped into a darkened area at the corner of another wall. From our hiding place, we watched as Corporal darted from the doorway we had just come out of and look around. When he didn't see us, he started running down another direction, disappearing somewhere into the facility.

"Shit," I hissed softly. If I wasn't anxious already I seemed to have reached top notch anxiety. "Corporal is probably going to report that he saw us. We better get moving, and quickly. Do any of you have any idea where they could be keeping Dave?"

All the henchmen looked at each other, silently collaborating on which way they should go. They seemed to have gathered enough information just being here on how to proceed, and that in itself was an amazement. I honestly do not think that I could ever comprehend just how smart these guys were, seriously.

All of the henchmen looked at me upon coming up with their plan and all nodded in unison. This brought some of the anxiety off of me then, but only a little. I still was scared, but now I knew that at least they knew where _they_ were going.

We all peeked around the corner of our hiding place one more time before we started running. We were making pace so quickly that I didn't even have time to look around or be cautious. I was just trying to keep up and stay as close to the henchmen as I could so I wouldn't get lost, or be the weak link in the group for that matter. I didn't want to screw this up.

The henchmen guided me, making a tight turn to the left before we finally made it to another one of those large doors. It was here that RJ and Jacob walked ahead of us to get the door open. It only took them a few moments to do so, though the wait had been harsh nonetheless. I was still worried that at any second we'd be caught.

Once the door opened with a heavy creaking sound, we rushed inside. However, my leap into the room was stalled the instant I saw _him_ _…_

"Dave?!" I cried out loud, this exclamation uncontrollable by all means.

Dave sat up as much as he could at least while being in a super small tank, and looked at us. His wide eyes revealed a mixture of worry and surprise once he saw us, although his gaze settled on me the most.

"Kailey?!" he gasped. "What are you doing here?"

I didn't bother answering him yet. I was trying to think of a way to get him out of that tank so we could get the hell out of here. After a few seconds of looking around to see nothing that could help me open the tank, I turned to the henchmen.

"Break that shit," I commanded, pointing at Dave's prison.

They all immediately jumped to work once I said that. Like the team they were, they all gathered around the tank, wrapped their tentacles onto the glass at all corners, and then started to squeeze. With their combined strength the glass immediately started to crack, and then shattered. All the water from the tank fell out in a miniature wave, kicking the now broken glass up against the lower walls of the room and out of the way. Dave got up as soon as he was able to gather himself, although this hesitation to move didn't last long whatsoever.

The two of us, as if our minds were somehow in sync, rushed up to each other and exchanged a tight embrace.

"Dave! Are you alright? Did they hurt you?" I finally gasped once I felt the large hug's time was up. At that moment I didn't care to bring up what had previously happened between us. I was just worried about him.

"I'm fine…" Dave responded, taking one of his tentacles and placed it on my left cheek softly as he looked at me. "But what about you? Are you okay? Are you… still angry?"

"No, and who cares!" I cried. I felt like tears wanted to burst from my eyes again, but I tried with all my might to keep them back. This wasn't a time to get all emotional. I knew we had to get out of here and quick. If Corporal went to warn the others that we were in the base, then they would be shortly coming after us. "Look, we need to leave!" I stated then, turning around swiftly to get everyone to start heading out.

"Wait!" Dave said, grabbing hold of my arm tightly, which caused me to stop in my tracks and look back at him. Dave stared at me, for a long while it seemed, before he managed to speak. "I love you…" he confessed.

" _I know,_ " I responded. Oh my God I finally got to pull a Han Solo. Another goal in life had been met.

I wanted to laugh at myself but I still was in retreat or die mode. I grasped Dave's tentacle that had grabbed onto my arm, and started pulling him along, traveling quickly with the henchmen back to the doorway and to start back the way we came.

Jacob and RJ worked the door again, getting it open after a brief few moments. Once the door opened we rushed into the hall, although once we set foot in the open I heard _them_ _._

"There they are!" I heard Corporal yell. In unison we all looked in the direction of Corporal's voice to see him, Classified, and like, a shitload of other North Wind agents.

"Run!" I yelled. We started to haul ass like marathon runners to try and escape. We were moving fast, but I could still hear North Wind on our tail. I was wondering then, as I ran along with a bunch of octopuses, if I'd be even able to outrun a freaking wolf and polar bear, and a bunch of other freaking animals. I mean, good lord I was accomplishing something here. Never in my life would I have thought I'd be able to run away from freaking _bears and wolves_ _._ How was this evening happening? How was I not being mauled or something already?

Regardless of what I thought, we finally made it to the hallway before the port area. It was only here that the leopard from before opened the door, yet again blocking our path. I was about to start freaking out from being cornered when the henchmen took it into their own hands (tentacles more specifically).

RJ and Kenny lunged forward and started wrestling with the leopard. I thought that the boys would get torn up, but yet again, Kenny took out the rag of chloroform he had from the house and used it on the leopard.

Where the henchmen stored things? I have absolutely no idea, and frankly I didn't care to find out.

Once the leopard was out, we ran over his unconscious body and rushed down into the port hall. Although here we met more than we bargained for.

The penguins and other North Wind agents, including Eva and Short Fuse, were at the far leftward portion of the hall. _The way we came in._

There was no way we could fight them all off. Hell, I wasn't even going to try to fight them off, although I did try to think of an alternate way to go. If we couldn't go back down the way we came in, and up that staircase to the shack and to our aircraft, we'd need to steal one of theirs. My eyes instantly caught the lone North Wind aircraft below in the takeoff port.

"Everyone, we need to get in that thing!" I cried.

Acting fast, the henchmen leapt over the edge and landed down below to start getting inside the aircraft. I, however… well, I was reluctant to jump obviously. The jump was a good few stories, and I'm sure I'd break something if I decided to go after them. But time was running short—the penguins and North Wind agents were blocking the path to our exit, and at any second Classified and the others would be behind us ready to imprison Dave again, and do lord knows what to me.

In the midst of my anguish, Dave grabbed me. I wasn't 100% aware of what was happening, but before I knew it Dave, with me in his grasp, leapt off the edge.

In a delayed reaction I screamed from the jump, my holler only cut short once we landed and the thud forced what air I had in my lungs to evacuate.

"Don't let them get away!" I heard Classified yell, along with the rusty doors they had come out of forced open.

At that point we were all safe yet tightly packed in the small aircraft, but North Wind was looking down on us from the balcony. Classified himself, along with a few of the other agile agents, leapt after us. Once they landed on our level, Classified decided to stand directly in front of our aircraft.

"Dave! Stop right where you are and surrender!" Classified ordered as he placed a paw in the air and at us. _Pfft. As if that was going to stop our escape._

"Move aside, hoe, or we'll run your ass down!" I yelled, although I'm sure he couldn't hear me while I was in the aircraft.

Just on cue, Penny started up the machine, and with a quick decision began moving the aircraft forward.

Classified saw this, and quite daringly, leapt _onto the freaking windshield._

"This guy doesn't give up, does he?" I commented. We still proceeded onward, our speed gathering and everything as we started taking off. I could tell that Classified could tell that if he didn't get off he'd be airborne at any moment, but I saw he was reluctant in regards to letting us get away again.

He took a good hard look at us one last time before he decided to abandon ship. The moment he was off of the windshield, and soon after seen landing on the port behind us, was when Penny triggered the aircraft to boost in speed.

Like curtains unraveling in a long awaited finale, we broke from the base, exiting the takeoff port's end, flew into the sky, and disappeared into the morning light.


	26. Square One

_"I'm not lying to you!"_

Yes… how the tides have turned. I wanted to start laughing maniacally but by doing so I would give away that something was up. So instead, I played it cool and placed my cell phone back to my ear.

"I'm sorry, Leah, but I wasn't home at all last night," I explained as sincerely as I could, although quite the contrary, I was purely bullshiting it. "I had to head back to New York to help Octavius. Turns out he's decided not to close down Octo Corp after all; wouldn't you know?"

"Okay, that's great and all but I can't protest any harder that I actually saw octopuses! _In the house_ _!_ " Leah continued.

"Yes, but that doesn't make sense," I stated seriously, although deep down I was finding pure comedy in this. "I mean—you just said you saw me in the house too when I wasn't even there. It was probably just a bad dream."

"It couldn't have been!" Leah exhaled harshly. "I… I guess… maybe it _could_ have, but it felt so real."

"Maybe you should go see a sleep clinic," I smiled outright when I said that, but I still managed to make my voice sound calm. "Just take it easy."

"Okay…" Leah sighed. "I guess I just miss you is all. But I still don't understand why the window is broken again."

"I wouldn't have the first clue." I shrugged, attempting to get my large grin off my face although my muscles in my cheeks wouldn't allow it. "Anyway, I better get going. Tell my mom hi for me when you see her—"

"Hey, Kailey, wait a second," she interrupted. "Be careful okay? I know I didn't talk much about it with you before, but I guess I was just scared. It's not every day your own cousin becomes… I don't know, some pilot to a robot that explodes after fighting terrorist. You're an HR Manager, not a... I don't know, laboratory assistant."

_Ha! Hahaha! Oh wow. Oh my God. Bless you, Leah. But you seriously don't know._

"That was a onetime thing." I finally let myself laugh, but lightly to try and make her relax. "Everything is fine here. Perfectly normal."

"I'm glad," she sighed one more time before ending the call. "Talk to you later."

Once the line had been cut I pulled the phone from my ear and looked down at it. Funny how cell phones are used nowadays. You use them to Google stuff, shop on Amazon, send email, take pictures and call people… but now when I looked at it I couldn't help but smile. I'm pretty sure this was the only cell phone in the world that got taken on an adventure with a bunch of octopuses. And I'm sure _I_ was the only person to do the same thing.

Once I was able to look up from the device I stared over at some of the henchmen working on setting up some computers located in one of the large offices here in the Octo Corp building. They were loading files—important ones at that—and were collaborating on future plans. The plans they had exactly? I wasn't sure. After all, I couldn't understand them, so I had to go by the tone of their gurgles and whatever popped up on the screen.

Some blueprints of the submarine came into view, along with some of the aircraft that Penny had designed. It wasn't until I paid attention even harder, mixing what was on the screen with the tone of their voices, that I understood that those machines must not have existed anymore.

"So… I'm guessing the submarine is gone?" I spoke aloud in a matter-of-fact manner. I wasn't surprised, really. If North Wind had attacked Dave I'm sure they would have taken everything out. The submarine, the aircraft… the _Medusa Serum_. From the looks of it Dave was literally back at square one.

The henchmen at the computer turned to look at me, nodding in unison to confirm my suspicions.

"Oh, well that's too bad," I commented. "I wonder if Dave's planning on replacing all those things."

"Don't worry about that." Dave's voice joined the conversation, catching me by surprise and forcing me to turn from the blueprints on the computer and to him.

"Well, it is kind of important," I said, while he stood at the door.

"The submarine and aircraft can be replaced…" Dave explained.

"But how? Mr. Issa is in prison. You don't have anybody to turn to for that kind of business anymore."

"That's true," Dave placed a tentacle on the side of his head, obviously still irritated about that, although he didn't let it get the best of him this time. "I'll just… try to find someone else."

"Good luck finding a human being with those kinds of resources." I chuckled sarcastically. "You might have to… I don't know, really… end up working with that dolphin you hate so much."

Dave grumbled under his breath, but he didn't say anything. When he finally _did_ decide to respond to me it was in attempts to completely change the subject.

"Kailey, I think you should come with me," he said then, transitioning well to a more chipper attitude. "Enough about work."

"Okaaay…" I responded, and reluctantly turned away from the henchmen working at the computers to follow Dave out of the large office room and down the hallway. To be honest I was just way to curious about what was going to happen. It was important for me to know as well, considering I freaking worked here and all. But despite my urge to know what was going to happen next, I gave into this attempt to 'dismiss work' and continued following Dave down the hall.

After a while of walking I could suddenly smell something cooking, or to put it more exactly, having been baked. I pretty much slowed down considerably then as I took in a giant sniff of what aroma was filling the immediate vicinity, and within a split second my brain scattered through different ideas of what it could be. I didn't take long to guess though.

" _Cake!?_ " I gasped. This was absolutely unbearable. I could distinctly tell the difference in smell between literally any kind of sweets, even to the smallest differentiation of cupcakes and cake itself. It was really strange. I wasn't like this with anything else, just freaking junk.

Dave slowed down only after my gasp and turned his head slowly, not necessarily in a way that would indicate he thought I was weird, but almost as if he was caught in the act. I didn't know right then, but my foresight and keen sense of smelling out sweets was right.

"Just follow me, okay?" Dave sighed. He tried to dismiss the fact that the surprise had been ruined, but regardless, seemed to keep up looking happy anyway. The moment we exited the main hallway and out onto the open lower floor was when I saw it.

_A giant ass four tier cake._

"Oh my God," I muttered. I wanted to burst out with another loud and gleeful exhale of excitement but I figured that would just freak everyone out even more. Instead, I pulled my attention from staring at the freaking cake, and to Dave.

"What is this for? My birthday isn't until November, you know," I stated jokingly.

"It's a victory cake!" Dave chipperly responded.

" _Victory cake?_ " I repeated. I thought about it for a second and to be honest it didn't really make sense. Sure we escaped the North Wind base but Dave had literally lost everything. In regards to how he must have felt, there was nothing really to celebrate. "What did we win?"

"I know what you might be thinking," Dave started to explain. "Almost everything I've worked for has been blown up and destroyed by North Wind since their last attack. If it wasn't for you even, I'd probably still be locked up in that tank…" he paused, only momentarily as his eyes settled into mine, "…but it's a victory _because_ you got me out of there. I've been waiting years to do this, and even though it didn't turn out exactly as I thought it would... well, let's just say I have more to be happy about then my revenge."

I felt my face briefly turn pink, although this change of hue quickly evaporated the moment I saw who must have been Kevin, one of Dave's henchmen, come from behind the cake wearing a chef hat. _To be honest I'm so glad I'm getting at least some of these names down, I'm not really one to remember anything without constantly being told over and over again._

"Ha, I'm guessing Kevin made the cake, huh?" I chuckled. "I sure hope it's as good as it looks!"

Kevin started gobbling happily, clapping two of his tentacles together as he bobbed up and down.

"He says he wants to put his baking skills to work. Something about opening a bakery," Dave translated.

"A bakery!?" I smiled upon hearing this. "I say go for it! Have you thought of a name?"

Kevin shook his head back and forth.

"Oh, well in that case I have the _perfect_ name for it." I grinned just thinking about it. "It will be called… _Kiss My Bunt_ _!_ "

"Is that appropriate?" Dave asked sincerely.

" _Ha! Hahaha_ , you're hilarious," I responded. "Out of everyone I know I'd thought you'd appreciate the pun."

"I still don't really understand what you mean by that. You're going to have to explain it to me."

"Ugh!" I couldn't help but huff. With Dave slipping celebrity puns back and forth all the time you'd think he'd _sort of_ hear himself. "Yeah, fine, I'll have to explain it to you later. But right now I wanna get into that victory cake over there!"

. . . . . . .

"Oh God I think I had too much cake," I admitted aloud. Dave had taken me onto the Octo Corp building's rooftop, and even as we stood there, I couldn't help but secretly thank him from taking me away from that damned deathtrap. My downfall was that I loved freaking chocolate to DEATH but if I ate too much of it I would DIE. Not literally, but you know. Whatever.

"You're cute, you know that?" Dave said softly, exchanging his glance from over the edge of the building and to me. "But look… while the henchmen are out of the way there are a few things I need to talk to you about."

"You don't have to apologize again…" I intervened. I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was having another guilt trip.

"No, I have too," Dave insisted. "What I said to you… _was so wrong_. It couldn't be any further from the truth. I was angry not only with what happened with North Wind and what they did to you—"

"Look, I don't care," I sat up a little and turned to him. "That's over with. You were angry, and sometimes we say things we don't mean when we're angry." I smiled gently at him to try and get his uptight behavior to go away. Although he was an 'adult' I felt like he still needed reassurance. Heck, everyone needs reassurance, regardless of how old we are. "You apologized and that's all that matters."

"But that's not all of it," Dave said. "I'm going to try and rebuild everything. The submarine, the aircraft, and other means of transportation and protection. That's necessary due to who I am, and what I've gotten myself into. If I'm going to keep up this Dr. Brine thing, and Octo Corp for that matter, I need a means to defend myself from North Wind and other possible threats." He sighed deeply after that, as in preparation for what he was about to say. "But… as for the penguins…"

"Oh my God, don't tell me we're going to start all of this over again." I was prepared to put my forehead through more trauma with another facepalm, though Dave spoke up before I did so.

"I've decided I'm going to give up on my plans on creating the Medusa Serum. And kidnapping the penguins."

" _What?_ " My response came out almost in a hiss. "You're shitting me, aren't you?"

"Shitting you?" His eyes narrowed in a confused manner. "How does that—never mind. No, I'm not ' _shitting_ ' you. Whatever that means. I'm done with that now."

"But that's your _revenge_ _!_ " My mouth was hanging open at that point. "That's like—your life's work! That's everything you ever wanted!" I admit, the entire sending-the-serum through-the-atmosphere thing still kinda freaked me out, but I was still shocked to find out about this new decision of his.

"That leads me to something else I wanted to talk to you about…" he hesitated in his sentence again as his eyes seemed to fall from looking at my face and to my left hand, which still had the ring on it. I didn't know what he was talking about until I followed his gaze, and only then did my face proceed to turn colors.

"You mean this?" I lifted my hand in attempts to deter any possibility of him looking back at my face, and stuck my arm out towards him to where the ring was basically waving right in front of him. "What about it?"

"Well... I was wondering…" he was hesitating again, but within the blink of an eye, his almost shy attitude exchanged to something of confidence. "Kailey, have you forgotten what I said in that message? My revenge means nothing, if it means losing you."

Before I knew it his eyes looked away from my hand and the ring, and up to my face again. He gently pushed aside my arm with one of his tentacles, making way for his full focus onto me. I felt so _exposed,_ but there was nothing I could really do about it. I could only try and act as confident and casual as I could to not look like a complete idiot. Although it didn't help that that butterfly feeling was back in my gut and my heart was up and pumping again. Despite that he already _knew_ I loved him I still was in some weird state that I needed to keep it to myself. It's super hard to explain but I just couldn't let myself act all… hell, _mushy_ outright!

"I love you, Kailey," he reinforced, rather strongly. "And I want you to marry me."

 _Holy shit!_ I was trying SO HARD not to look like an imbecilic but I'm sure at that moment my entire face was engulfed with the darkest freaking blush ever. "Uhhhh," was literally all I could get out! I WAS RUINED!

I tried to get a hold of myself. I admit it took me a few seconds, maybe a _good few_ seconds, but I got control again.

"I don't know…" I lifted my hand up again and looked at the ring myself. "We've only known each other for what? The summer?"

"Don't play coy with me," Dave responded with a smirk.

 _God, this wasn't working._ I continued to try and play further into my defense mechanism that consisted of trying not to act in a certain way, regardless that it was obvious. That is yet another thing that I found as a huge flaw in myself. I could keep a straight ass face but you could instantly tell if I was embarrassed (or sad) or not by how easily my face turned red.

"Marriage is like… a big step," I admitted softly, attempting further to keep a straight face.

"You can keep the ring regardless," Dave took a deep breath, but kept his eyes on me. "We don't have to officially get married."

" _But don't stop asking me_." My response fell out of me like the opening of a closet stuffed with over-packed laundry. I knew this came out without a filter, but the second it did I felt my heart skip a beat. I stared awkwardly at him for a few seconds, before something completely random and unforeseen happened.

He freaking leapt forward and _kissed me_ _._

It happened so fast that I became stiff like a board, caught in a typically not normal situation. I didn't push away, or fight back, but for the moment I also couldn't even try and kiss back. I was just like a freaking goat, really. Stiff and caught in another defense mechanism.

After what seemed like a while of pressing lips (or whatever) with Dave, he finally caught himself, coming back to reality and pulled away from me. " _I am so sorry,_ " Dave apologized, his eyes wide and his mouth partially open from his realization. "I don't know what came over me… I should ask you next time, I'm sorry."

"Then ask me," I responded. Yet again, words were slipping through the cracks of my consciousness. It was as if that wall I always had built in front of me and that tower of anger had its doors lowered. Regardless that the guards inside wanted to fill the moat with water, the water wouldn't come.

"Can I kiss you?" Dave asked softly again. _His damned voice, oh my Lord_.

"Yeah," I answered. That was all it took though.

I was about to warn him to take it easy, but the next thing I knew he freaking grabbed hold of me, dipped me, and then while I hung there at the mercy of his freaking tentacles he dove in for the kiss.

As I was up there, on top of that corporate rooftop building, being kissed by a freaking octopus, I couldn't help but contemplate exactly what kind of situation I was in, and had been for a long time. Literally everything I ever knew to be… heck, _normal_ was down the drain. Those days going to class, stopping to fill my car with gas, sitting at a table with my family… you know, regular stuff, was just as usual of a thing to me as going on adventures with Dave.

What was that thing the Addams' wife said? ' _Normal is an illusion._ _What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly_ '? Or that other one where it says ' _There are two kinds of people in this world: the ones who think they're normal, and the ones that know there is no such thing_ '? Yeah, well that. I was going somewhere with this. I had a point. But, you know, whatever. Screw it.

 _Normally_ how these kinds of stories go, I'd proceed to say how everything was super chill and we lived happily ever after. But I'd be lying.

This wasn't _the end_ _._ This was only the beginning.

**FIN**


End file.
